Event Horizon
by Jenny-Wren28
Summary: What would have happened if "Twilight" happened in the same universe as the events that took place in "The Host"? features the full cast from both books *WARNING: THE REVIEWS CONTAIN MASSIVE STORY SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*
1. Book One: Carlisle

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight or The Host.**

**How this story came to be: Years ago after finishing reading Breaking Dawn I was _pissed_ _off_ by the ending. I thought there should have been a big epic battle and I didn't get the payoff I wanted after 4 books. That's the beauty of fanfic - I realized I could go ahead and write the ending _I _wanted. At the same time I was re-reading The Host (which I absolutely _love_) and all these plot bunnies kept hopping around my mind, eventually intermixing to the point where this story was born. **

**So there is no confusion, this story begins just after "Breaking Dawn" ends, but PRIOR to the events that take place in "The Host." Essentially, this is the beginning of the invasion.**

* * *

**Book One**

**Carlisle**

"_Primum non nocere_,

_First, do no harm_._"_

* * *

**Chapter One: Concerned**

I paced back and forth in the dining room waiting for the last of my family to arrive while I considered everything that I knew. Something was wrong with humanity. Something was off. Something was _happening_.

It had been coming on for months now. At first I'd been pleased with how nice and cordial everyone was being to each other at the hospital - which was saying something since it was such a high stress environment; and how crime was dropping across the country…

But then I'd noticed _it_ the first time I'd tried to do a standard physical on one of _them_; the eyes that reflected the light back to me when I tried to dilate Mrs. Davidson's eyes, and then the fact that she smelled different. She still smelled like herself, and yet, different.

Like she had something else in her blood. Something new. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I knew something was off.

I depended a lot on my sense of smell when diagnosing my patients. I could tell what over the counter drugs they were taking, and if they were being completely honest about what may or may not be in their system which could be crucial in treating them. After Mrs. Davidson I started noticing that a lot of my patients were starting to have that additional smell, what I eventually identified as a faintly metallic scent, almost as if they had too much iron in their system.

I wasn't worried until the kids started to call Esme and me almost simultaneously. It was the summer holiday, and we still hadn't decided when or if we were moving from Forks yet. And so, as usual, all the couples, besides Esme and I, left to go on individual vacations and get some private time. Alice, and Jasper in New Orleans; Rosalie and Emmett in London; and Edward, Bella, Jacob, and Renesme in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

All was proceeding as normal, when yesterday they had all called within an hour of each other to report that something was… off.

A familiar pair of arms wrapped around me as Esme came up from behind. Resting her chin on my shoulder, she peered at me, worry written on her soft features. I tried to reassure her but I feared that the attempt was lost for the moment. She had been with me for too many years and at this point a lie was not something she would easily fall for.

Knowing she wouldn't be fooled, I simply patted her hands before turning around to hug her, holding her tight to my own body. Even after all these years she was still my beacon, my light in the dark and I loved her so very much.

"Please try not to worry," I whispered against her ear. "They'll all make it back safe and sound. Skin like granite you know?" I planted a kiss on the top of her head trying to soothe her.

Esme spoke into my shirt as she replied. "Carlisle, they should have been here hours ago. It's not like Edward not to call."

Holding her tighter while trying to calm her, I didn't respond - couldn't respond. What could I say? Edward, Bella, Jacob and Nessie were beyond late, and their phones were going straight to voice mail. Because of the blocks that Nessie and Jacob gave Alice we truly had no way of knowing what was going on. But even despite that, Jacob at the very least should have checked in, communicating with his pack in his wolf form, but so far nothing from that quarter either.

A soothing sense of peace filtered through me, loosening my tense shoulders. Esme melted against my side, feeling the same sense of relief. Looking across the room Jasper stood leaning on the door frame, concern showing on his face as well.

We were all thinking the same thing.

They would return to us. We knew that logically, but the heart and the head just didn't want to agree. While the mind told us that our family was strong and that we had survived and overcome more than our fair share of trials, our collective hearts were telling us that this may be it; they might be gone. It wasn't a thought that I could deal with easily.

Not when it came to my children.

They were my love. My children. My wife. My family. They were everything to me. I had watched Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Edward figuratively grow from fledgling "children" to the fully formed beings that they were now. Esme and I raised them, instilled a sense of right and wrong in them and I can safely say that no parents could be as proud of their children as we were.

They had each overcome some of the worst evils and had grown into the type of people I had only hoped they could be. Now my family had been extended to include Bella and my granddaughter Renesme. Jacob, despite Edward's outward irritation, was even part of the family now. We had accepted them all with open arms and right now, I wished for them only to be here, safe and sound, where I could keep an eye on them.

But they weren't here. I had no idea where they were and that thought alone terrified me, because I did not know how to protect them.

I didn't know what was wrong; I only knew that something was coming and that this something was bigger than my family. It was not a thought I was comfortable with and I knew that I would do whatever I could to keep my children safe, but this time, I wasn't sure if it would be enough.

"Leah's coming." Alice stepped into the room, standing beside Jasper. The two of them had arrived over an hour ago and yet these were the first words that I had heard Alice utter. Alice couldn't have "seen" Leah coming, but must have heard her, so Leah had to be very close by.

Pulling away from Esme only slightly, I turned to the door expectantly, my eyes taking Leah in as she burst into the room.

"They're safe!"

A collective sigh was expelled around the room. These were the words we had been waiting to hear for the past few hours.

"Flying's not safe at the moment, so they're running back here. They're somewhere in Mexico. Apparently they have to avoid any sort of mass transit so it may take them some time to get here."

I could feel Esme bursting to ask what was going on. I too was wondering why mass transit wasn't safe but I knew that the question was useless. Laying a hand on her shoulder, I stopped her, trading a single glance with my wife. Leah continued, unaware of the silent exchange of words.

"Jacob said he would have phased earlier but he was injured when they departed the airplane. He had to heal a bit first. We're supposed to get Sam and Billy and be ready to hold a meeting. They should be here in a few hours."

Leah didn't wait for any sort of response. She was still uneasy around us, only tolerating us because as a member of Jacob's pack she had to. Quickly, she phased back into her wolf form and darted out of the room, leaving the rest of us to consider the information that had just been handed to us.

The tension had doubled in a short time as new questions suddenly arose. As I looked around the room, I could see the words on my family's lips. Talk and speculation would quickly get us nowhere though, so I shook my head indicating "no." Alice looked as if she wanted to protest for the briefest of moments, but as we locked eyes, she remained quiet. I would not allow ideas that would only worry everyone all the more to be tossed about until Edward, Bella and the rest of them were safe at home.

* * *

**Chapter Two: Stories**

The dining room was full, and yet, eerily silent. Sam Uley, Billy and Jacob Black, and the entirety of my family all gathered in the main dining room, waiting patiently for Edward to begin. They had entered the house silently only twenty minutes prior, Bella, Edward and Jacob looking tired while Nessie slept quietly in the next room.

Silent embraces were exchanged as the family felt a minute of relief flow through the room, only to ebb away once more as the thought of what was to come suddenly made itself present.

Without question, we all silently gathered around the table, Edward at the head, me off to the side a little. Edward's worry was barely contained and one look at Bella confirmed my suspicion that whatever was going on was bad.

"At first we didn't notice. Or maybe we just didn't want to," Edward had started. I watched as he and Bella exchanged a quick glance.

"Crime slowly was disappearing, even petty arguments that you'd usually see exchanged in the streets in Rio were being replaced by friendly smiles. People were just… nice to each other. And at first, we didn't give much thought to it. Happiness isn't supposed to be something that you question. But then beggars started to vanish from the streets and, well, you can't help but notice that even the_ favelas _were starting to empty out. This was Brazil after all."

Edward paused, a frown on his face while he organized his thoughts. Knowing looks were exchanged by my family around the table. It was true. You really couldn't ignore it when the less fortunate weren't there for people to try and ignore anymore.

"At first I was worried that there was a pack of 'New Borns' running around the city. But then when I started to recognize a few of the beggars in new clean clothes, working, and being taken care of - well, that's when we called Carlisle and decided to come back to Forks." He shook his head. "Something was _off. _It just felt wrong, you know? And we were worried for Nessie's safety, among other things.

"We knew we needed to come home so we got the first plane out of Rio de Janeiro that we could. About an hour into the flight oxygen masks appeared. Most of the passengers were confused at this point because there wasn't any turbulence and nothing seemed to be wrong with the airplane, but we donned them anyway. We really didn't see any other option, and we really didn't want to stand out, and as for the humans, I guess they figured that it was better to be safe than sorry.

"We didn't notice for a few seconds that the oxygen tasted wrong. Bella and I had been fretting over Renesme, trying to get the mask on her face and didn't realize that the oxygen not only tasted wrong, but had a funny smell to it as well. By the time we made the connection, everyone in the First Class cabin was asleep, including Jacob and Nessie.

"It wasn't until we were removing the masks from Jacob and Nessie's faces, that we smelled something worse." Edward moved closer to his wife and glanced towards the room that held his slumbering child. "The scent of human blood was coming from coach."

The emotion was absent from his voice as he tried to remain calm. That was just how Edward was. Calm until the very last minute.

"Did you see what was happening?" Emmett broke in, impatient to know just exactly what we were dealing with.

"I looked but…" Edward frowned again for a moment, trying to find his next words. "The best way I can describe it is that something that looked like a human was putting some sort of silvery wormlike thing onto the necks of the passengers."

"What looks like a human?" Billy asked, confusion written across his face.

Bella took a deep breath as she began to speak. "They appear human but they don't smell like humans. I saw it too and it's like Edward said. The things the flight crew were putting in the passengers looked like a worm, only silver in color. And we could smell the metallic tinge to the blood."

Bella paused here, and looked at Edward, so he continued. "All we wanted to do was grab Nessie and Jake and jump from the plane. But we couldn't just leave everyone else behind to essentially be murdered."

"This is about the time that I came too," Jacob said, sitting up a little in his chair. "They were silently sitting in the corner freaking out when I woke up. I'll tell you, I've never been happier to have that super healing thing that I do. Anyways, when I was fully awake I calmly-"

"Calmly?" Edward raised an accusing eyebrow at him.

Jacob rolled his eyes in return. "Calmly. I went over to Edward and Bella to see what was going on and to see how we were going to get out of this situation safely."

Edward snorted loudly at that. "More like you woke up and started freaking out because you didn't know what was going on and you smelled human blood."

Jacob nodded and waved a dismissive hand. "Like I said, I calmly got your attention."

I watched as Edward suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. It _seemed_ that whatever external good will the two of them had forged during the last confrontation with the Volturi was gone, at least on the surface. I knew better though; Jacob was in many ways a son to Edward now, and what kid didn't like to push their parent's buttons from time to time? Even Edward, the so-called perfect child, had gone through a rebellious stage.

"Besides, I was concerned for Nessie's safety."

"Do us a favor, next time you are concerned with _my_ daughter's safety, don't start yelling and flailing your arms about."

"I didn't flail."

"It was because of you that the flight crew knew we were awake," Edward snapped. Trying to gain back some of his control, he turned away from Jacob, as if the sight of the wolf right now was his only cause of irritation.

"We heard the flight crew coming forward and we panicked. Bella grabbed Nessie and kicked open the door and the rapid decompression sucked them right out of the plane. I grabbed Jacob and absorbed most of the fall and impact with the ground while Bella did the same for Nessie."

"This is why I couldn't phase and get to you guys sooner," Jacob complained bitterly.

"If I had not done what I did, you would have died."

"I would have been fine."

Edward shook his head. He really needed to learn to ignore Jacob. Jacob only said half the things he did to get under Edward's skin. It was a favorite pastime of the wolf's.

"Our cell phones shattered with the force of the impact," Bella continued, ignoring the way that Jacob and Edward were glaring at each other. She had gotten used to this sort of interaction by now. We all had.

"And since we landed in the middle of the Amazon, there weren't any phones around. Besides, we didn't know how safe it would be for us to go into public. We didn't know what was going on or if this had spread yet. We just knew we needed to get home. We figured running was going to be the safest way and when Jacob was well enough, he'd phase and let you guys know we were okay."

"Yeah, that was a fun idea. We should have just left him," Edward muttered. Bella looked slightly amused by the situation while Jacob glared.

"I was not about to have a bloodsucker carry me home."

Edward laughed. "So you'd rather have a girl do it? Yeah, real manly of you, Jacob. You should be proud, Billy. Your son was too stubborn to allow me to help him but he allowed Bella to hand Nessie off to me so she could carry him while we ran home. Real chivalrous. Oh, and by the way Jacob, in case you hadn't noticed Bella's a bloodsucker now too."

"Boys," Bella intoned.

I had a feeling it was a warning that was shot to the two of them a lot during this trip. It seemed that the stress of the situation had them really keyed up and on edge. I'd thought that they'd moved past a lot of this. Apparently I was wrong. Edward never would have been so outwardly petty and rude before.

"I'm just saying that if he really wants to be with my daughter maybe he should be a little more considerate in the future."

"Not your choice, vampire."

"You'll ask before you do _anything_, dog."

I was about to look meaningfully at Jasper to have him calm the situation down a bit, when Bella broke in

"Boys," Bella yelled again. "Not now!" Turning to the rest of the family, Bella allowed Jacob and Edward to fume. "So that's what happened. You guys know the rest."

We all sat and considered the facts, trying to absorb everything that we had heard, whether we wanted to or not.

"So it's true. It really is an invasion of some sort," Esme whispered finally. All eyes turned to Alice for confirmation.

Squinting in frustration, Alice half shrugged, half sighed in irritation. "I can't see anything. Well, not anything worth seeing really."

I had watched her try all day to see what was going on but each and every time she was coming up with nothing.

"I think that's the scariest part. When I look into the future, everyone is content, I mean EVERYONE. There is no conflict, no war, no poverty, but at the same time it's like there is no more life on this planet. No one is really happy, because no one is really sad," She frowned. "Does that make sense? I can't see any clear humans. Or rather, I can't see humans clearly anymore. It's like they've all mostly become something _other. _It's as if humanity has been erased."

Words failed for everyone as the tension spiked in the room. It became palpable, thickening with each moment of silence that passed. No one even dared to move until a wolf's howl sounded from the outside.

Sam and Jacob jumped up immediately, breaking through the door and heading towards the source. By my side, Edward froze.

"It's Seth," he began, and looked fearfully over towards the slumbering Renesme as if to make sure she was still ok. "He's been attacked by _them._"

* * *

**Chapter 3: Panic**

Seth arrived, panting, having phased back into his human form. None of us had moved from the dining room as of yet. Instead we looked towards Edward as he silently kept us updated, while Alice tried in vain to see something, _anything_ that might be of help. Her vision was blank when it came to the wolves however, and it was quickly becoming the same when it came to humans as well.

"What happened?" Bella asked.

Seth shook his head. "I was waiting at the airport for you guys to arrive. I went to use the bathroom and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up, lying face down on a table with something cutting into my neck. I didn't know what was going on so I just freaked out and flipped off the table. When I saw what the hell was going on, I made the decision to get out of there as fast as I could." Seth looked towards Jacob, a nervous ball of energy. "Why didn't you guys tell me you weren't flying in?"

"We didn't know you were going to the airport."

"Yeah, well, I did. And in return I had some weirdo attack me and try to take my neck off and replace it with a glow worm! Whatever they gave me didn't even allow me to phase at first. I thought I was going insane. I kept thinking, 'they've done it, they've managed to take the wolf right out of me with that glowing mass of blob'."

"Glowing mass of blob?" Leah smirked.

"Shut up! I've been traumatized. The only comfort I have to cling to is the fact that I probably scared the crap out of those freaks since my neck just kept healing every time they tried to cut it."

Emmett laughed loudly, finding the amusement that no one else could in this situation. Sensing the moment was about to get out of control, I stepped forward. If I would have let them, they would have continued on joking. It was their way of dealing with a situation they had no idea what to do with. And as much as I preferred the jokes, we needed to stay on track.

"Did you notice anything different? Any distinct smells?" I asked.

Seth's look became somber as he turned to me. I could feel the anxiety rolling off him but to his credit, he was trying to keep himself under control, sensing how serious everything was becoming.

"Actually, yeah… there was this like almost metal smell that seemed to come from the glow worm blob things they had. At least I think so. I got outta there pretty fast."

"Thank you Seth." Turning to the group that had gathered I took in their worried expressions. For the first time, none of us really knew what to do, and no one even really had a point of reference to start with.

"Carlisle," Alice whispered. "What is going on?"

Taking a deep and unnecessary breath, an act that had become second nature after all these years, I began to try and figure that out myself.

"I think that we've established a few things so far. The first is that there is some sort of human parasite out there infiltrating the human race. Whether it originated here on Earth or came from elsewhere doesn't matter right now. What does matter is that, if Alice's visions are to be counted on, all of humanity seems to be threatened since it appears that humans all become something _other_ in the future."

Alice nodded. "I can't really see _them_. I can see humans because I was one, I can see vampires because I am one, but since I can't really see them; they have almost nothing of humanity left in them."

"Obviously vampires are safe from _them," _I said, trying to add some amount of hope to the conversation, wishing to give my family something to hang on to. "They can't cut through our skin to do the parasite implantation, but also, I suspect that they need a living host."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bella shift, exchanging a glance with Edward. "I don't think you two have to worry," I said softly. "While Renesme is a living host, she also, thankfully, has a vampire's impenetrable skin, which should protect her.

"And as for the wolves, I think we've all seen that, for the most part, they are relatively safe since they heal too fast for _them_ to do the insertion and they wake before _they_ can complete it."

Everyone nodded as they started pulling the information we knew, and piecing it together. "Which leaves…."

Before I could finish, a quiet gasp escaped from Bella's lips. "No," she whispered, horror etched on her face. "Mom…. Charlie." And within two steps she was at the door.

Jasper was faster. He gently restrained her, asking her to wait and be rational, using his gift to calm her.

"We don't know how to tell if someone is still human or _other_ yet," he tried to reason. "You can't just run out there right now. Not until we know more. You have no idea of the possible risks."

Pulling out of his grasp, Bella looked at him. "We know what they smell like," she snapped. And before anyone could stop her, she was out the door, Edward hot on her heels.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Lockdown**

"Charlie's fine and on his way to LaPush," I sighed while snapping my cell phone closed. "Edward and Bella are on their way to Jacksonville right now to check on Renée and Phil."

If there was one thing to say about Bella, it was that she was just as determined to protect her family as I was. "Bella was wondering if perhaps a few wolves couldn't shadow Charlie on his way to LaPush just to make sure he gets there unhindered, and - more importantly - still human."

"On it," Seth hollered on his way out the door. "He'll stay with us. Mom will like that." I watched as Seth phased before he even reached the tree line.

"Maybe Nessie should come with me to LaPush until this all blows over," Jacob suggested.

"How do we even know LaPush will be safe?"

It was a valid question, but coming from Rosalie, it sounded more like an insult. Out of everyone in the family, she was the one that was the least okay with our alliance with the werewolves. She and Leah actually had a lot in common; they'd be horrified to learn that, of course, and probably would refuse to acknowledge it.

"We know how to take care of ourselves," Jacob snapped.

"Is that why Bella had to carry you practically all the way here?"

"I was injured."

"Yes, you were, and most likely you'll be injured again," Rosalie pointed out. "Nessie stays here."

"It's not up to you."

"And it's not up to you either Fido. It's up to Edward and Bella."

"Yeah? Well they're not here right now."

"Jacob," I sighed. Tension was running high in this house. I knew that. Added to that was the tension that always arose between Rosalie and Jacob. I couldn't have any more of this running through the household. We needed to stay calm and stick together if we had any hope of getting out of this.

"Why don't you stay here? It'll make Renesme more at ease to have you here and you won't send Edward and Bella into a panic when they get back wanting to see their daughter and find her gone."

Jacob looked like he wanted to protest, but perhaps he heard the pleading in my voice and frowning directly at Rosalie, mumbled "fine." The conversation was done for now, but I had a feeling that as we waded further into this situation, it would be brought up more than once.

"I'm thinking we're going to have to put the reservation on lockdown for the next couple days. At least until we know what's going on."

I nodded in agreement with Billy. He was uneasy in my home as well, but he and I had come to a silent truce. We both had our families to look out for and because of that, we would work together with ease.

"I don't want anyone one in or out. It shouldn't raise too many eyebrows so long as they keep First Beach open and accessible to the public," Billy continued.

"I think that's probably for best," I replied.

"Also, Charlie needs to go ahead and take some of those vacation days that he has saved up. He doesn't know it yet, but he's not leaving La Push until the lockdown is over."

Jacob laughed at his father. "Are you going to be the one to tell Charlie that? Because I'm thinking that's not going to go over too well. He'll want an explanation and then the moment he gets one, he'll want to pretend like he never heard that explanation."

Billy grunted in response. I had a feeling that Billy was going to try and save the pleasure of telling Charlie what was happening until the last moment possible. He could maybe stave of Charlie's curiosity for a day or two, but beyond that… it wasn't going to happen. Bella got her stubborn streak straight from Charlie, from what I had observed.

"We also need to check the residents of the reservation to see if they are one of _them."_ Billy continued. "This should be easy enough. We can put it around that it looks like there may have been an outbreak of the flu or something and Dr. Cullen needs to check everyone out."

"If someone was infected, do you think you could remove it?" Jacob looked at me with hope, no doubt wondering how many of his friends were already lost to him.

"I don't know. There is so much that could go wrong that I may end up killing the human. We simply don't know enough about _them _yet. Plus we still don't know what effect _they_ have on humans. Perhaps it is not as bad as Alice thinks…" I trailed off as I saw the look on everyone's faces.

Everyone knew not to bet against Alice.

"I better get to LaPush and have a chat with Charlie," Billy said. "Jacob, check in every couple of hours. I know you'll stay where the girl is but that doesn't mean that you don't still have obligations to your family, or to your pack."

Jacob nodded quietly, not even attempting to argue.

"Carlisle, I'll put the word around that you'll be on the reservation tomorrow. We can start examinations in the morning."

"I'll be there first thing." The sooner we found who was infected, the sooner maybe we could come to ending this nightmare.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Infiltrated**

The day started with a feeling of dread. As Esme and I had made our way to the LaPush clinic, I had an overwhelming fear that not only would we find an _other_ but that I wouldn't be able to fix whoever it was that had been infected. That's what it would come down to in the end. The family members of the infected would expect me to perform a miracle that I wasn't sure I could do.

However, It was evening now and so far not a single person I had seen had shown any signs of the infection. My relief was palpable, setting not only Esme at ease, but Embry and Quill as well. The four of us had methodically checked each of the LaPush residents and so far, we had been lucky.

"I have to admit," Embry started as Quill ushered out another patient who had been cleared. "I never thought I would see the day when I was actually _glad_ to have Vampires around."

Quill nodded. "You guys really are the only ones that can be counted on _not_ to be changed. I'm going to have to begrudgingly say thank you for your help today."

I turned to tell them that I was just happy that we could all be in the same room without fighting, when Jacob burst through the door. In his arms, was an unconscious Emily.

"Phase and go into the woods. Seth needs help restraining Sam." It was a barked order towards Quill and Embry and one they complied to without a moment's hesitation. "Send Leah back here!" he yelled as they rushed out the door.

"What happened?" I motioned for Jacob to lay Emily on the table, Esme already rushing about for any necessary supplies I might need.

"I went to meet up with Sam to talk about last night when I heard a fight break out inside. When I got there, Emily was unconscious on the floor and Sam and Leah were trying to kill each other."

I looked down at Emily. Other than some bruises that were forming she seemed ok. Not a scratch… and then I was suddenly startled. The old wolf attack scars that used to mar one side of her face were completely gone. Also, given the scent that was coming off of her, I didn't even have to ask why Leah had attacked her. The tinge of metal that hung heavy in the air was all the answer I needed.

Leah burst through the door, snapping my gaze from what used to be Emily's body. A paper hospital gown was wrapped around her human form. Clearly her clothes had not survived her phasing that morning.

"Jacob, she's not Emily," she quickly explained.

"I know."

"I went to Sam's to have the meeting with the two of you, and I got there before you, so I was waiting inside alone with Sam. Not that I wanted to, but you were late. Sam was annoyed because Emily was gone. She hadn't listened, Jake. She went outside of LaPush to attend a doctor's appointment despite the fact that we are on lockdown."

Leah looked toward Emily's prone body, shaking her head in disbelief. "She got home and had just entered the living room when I smelled her. She smelled just like everyone said _they _would. Like metal. And then I saw her. All of her scars were gone. She was one of _them." _Leah spat the word out in disgust, going from confused to angry at the drop of a hat.

"I did the only thing I could. I phased and attacked before she could attack us. Sam had no clue what was going on so he phased and defended her. That's around the time you came in, Jacob."

"You should have come and got me," Jacob hissed. "You shouldn't have taken matters into your own hands."

"And what would you have done if you were in my place? If it had been Nessie she was walking towards?"

Jacob looked away. Leah had done what any of them would have in that situation. It didn't mean he had to like it though. And with Emily's still body on the table next to him, Jacob couldn't help but hate Leah a little for what she had done.

"You're not to go near Sam and you're to stay away from Emily."

"That's not Emily anymore."

"Don't go near her, Leah. It's an order." I could tell Jacob did not say that last part lightly.

I watched as Leah stepped forward. She couldn't argue with Jacob, not that he had now given an order, but she was going to try and piss him off. It was engrained in her to do so for some reason, and right now, that was not what we needed. Already these parasites were pulling us apart and that was something we couldn't afford to do. I was afraid that if we let them, then we'd soon be gone as well.

"Jacob, please go out and try to calm Sam down. Tell him I'm treating Emily and that nothing will happen to her while she's in my care."

"Treat her? Why would you treat her? She's a threat to us all!" Leah yelled.

"I made an oath to do no harm. I don't plan on breaking that. Now Jacob go. Seth is going to need your help with Sam. And Leah, please go get Billy and the other council members. There will need to be a council bonfire tonight, and we'd like to attend if that's alright."

Jacob left the room, giving Emily one last look. Leah soon followed.

"Esme, please tell my next patient I'll be with them in a moment."

As the room cleared, I looked down at Emily. No, not Emily, one of _them. _My mind told me this, asserted it even with force, but as I looked down at her, I couldn't bring myself not to care about her well being. Resigning myself to protect her, even while the rest would want to kill her, I went about dressing her wounds.

Thankfully most of her injuries seemed superficial, but I couldn't be sure until I examined her when she was awake. Most likely she was just going to be sore and a little bruised when she woke up. Unfortunately, that was going to be the least of her worries. Frowning at this thought, I gently picked her up and moved her to another hospital bed, pulling the privacy curtain around her.

She was fine for now, and could wait, plus I needed to finish the evaluation of the half dozen residents remaining now. But I couldn't leave her unguarded. I had no idea what to expect from _them._

"Esme, send in the next patient please, and then please keep an eye on – Emily here." My voice tripping over Emily's name. I didn't even know if she was Emily anymore - and that was the problem. None of us really knew anything about _them _other than Alice's ominous looks into the future.

And I knew better than to bet against Alice.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Council**

In years past, not only would I not have been on the Quileute lands, but I certainly would not have been sitting casually around a bonfire with them. Though I supposed that nothing about this situation was casual. It didn't help that I was certain that there were still some who would have gladly thrown me in the fire and watched me burn. But I couldn't blame them. Though I knew I was no threat to them, how could they be certain? No, they were right to want to protect their families.

The council was meeting tonight to discuss one thing - Emily. No one knew what to do with the situation that had arisen. Sam had not phased back into his human form since it had happened and now he simply sat, staring into the fire with dull eyes. As I looked at him, I knew I had done the right thing by vowing to protect Emily. If only to offer him some sort of peace of mind.

"What was she thinking?" Jacob hissed. "She couldn't have rescheduled her doctor's appointment? She couldn't have waited a few more days? She wasn't sick."

"We're not here to question Emily's actions," Billy said, causing the lower murmur over what his son had said to end. "We're here to discuss what is to be done now that she…" he trailed off. What had happened was still hard to deal with and no one had yet figured out an easy way to describe what was happening.

"Have any other… _invaders_ been found?" A council member asked, turning to me slightly.

I shook my head. "No."

"What do they want from us?" Someone else asked.

"I don't know. No one has been able to talk with her yet."

"Forget talking. We're not really interested in that. I say that you remove the worm from her head and get Emily back." The council murmured positively at that suggestion, and I couldn't help but feel dread.

It was a difficult situation that we were in. Everyone wanted the parasite removed from Emily but the fact remained that we did not know enough to try it. Or at least we did not know enough for me to feel comfortable trying it.

"I can't do that. It could harm her. Possibly kill her."

A low growl sounded from my right as Sam shifted, letting his opinion on the matter be known.

"I will not let anything harm her, Sam. If we are to remove the parasite from Emily, I will only do it when I know for certain it is not going to kill her."

"Then our job right now is to figure out how we can make that happen," Billy said solemnly. "Carlisle, you seem to be the only unbiased one here that has Emily's best interest at heart. I think it would be best if you were to interrogate her, along with Edward as soon as he returns. He'll be able to tell if she's lying or not and given the circumstances, I don't want to take any risks."

"You can start right away then." Seth's voice called out as he approached the council. He bypassed them all, going straight to me. "Edward and Bella just crossed into reservation lands. They've got two people with them."

"Where are they now?"

"It looked like they were headed towards the clinic."

I nodded. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to be there before they have a chance to see Emily." I didn't wait for the council's response. Instead I took off, running towards the clinic.

I rushed into the room to find Edward trying to calm Bella down. The two humans that Seth had spoken of were currently knocked out, resting on one of the exam tables. I recognized them right away to be Bella's mother and Phil.

Seeing me, Edward came to my side, leaving Bella in Alice and Jasper's care. "I knocked them out the moment we got there," he said, trying to keep his voice quiet so as not to upset Bella further. "We were too late." Edward shook his head sadly. "By the time we got there… Carlisle, you have to fix them. Bella is frantic and… you just have to fix them."

"Edward…."

Edward's eyes closed for a brief moment. He already knew what I was going to say. He himself had two medical degrees. He understood my feelings on the matter. Like me though, he was scared. The urge to protect Bella, to make everything okay for her, was overwhelming him.

"I know," he whispered. "I just hate seeing her like this.

"I promise I'll do what I can." Resting my hand on Edward's shoulder, I gave it a firm squeeze. Edward nodded his head once before returning to Bella's side. She had calmed slightly, due to Jasper, but was still looking at the inert forms of her mother and Phil, with ill ease.

Renée and Phil were soon placed in another room, with Emmett standing guard. It had been decided, that since only vampires seemed to be immune from the parasites, that we would be the only ones to guard for the time being. This was a job that Emmett was all too perfect for - though it seemed that he was hoping for a fight, or at least a wrestling match.

Meanwhile Alice and Jasper had taken Bella back to the house, hoping that the sight of Renesme would soothe her. Edward kissed her goodbye before he followed me to Emily's room.

"So the council believes that these creatures are going to willingly just give up the information we need to extract them from their host bodies?"

I nodded. "Apparently."

"You know that's not how it's going to be though, right?"

"Yes. But it's worth a try at the very least. Maybe we can learn something about them. Although, therein lies another problem."

"What's that?"

"She won't talk to anyone."

Edward smiled at that, "She'll talk to me." I raised a questioning eyebrow, and Edward, clearly hearing my silent question, waved it away. "I heard Renée and Phil, or rather the parasites in their heads just fine."

A slow smile formed across my lips. Things were suddenly not looking so bleak.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Questions**

As Edward and I entered the dimly lit room, I looked to my side and saw Esme. She smiled weakly at me and shook her head. The girl still hadn't said anything to her. Rising from her position next to Emily's bed, she quietly slipped out of the room, squeezing my hand affectionately before she left.

And then there she was. Curled up in a corner, Emily was silently rocking back and forth, staring at Edward and me with fear etched across her face.

I'd only met Emily once before, but this clearly was not the girl I remembered. Edward nodded silently in agreement, also comparing her to the recollections he'd seen in the minds of the wolves.

"She would have fought back," Edward murmured, too quiet to be heard by the girl, "and she never would have cowered in a corner like this."

Obviously this was no longer Emily.

I walked slowly up to her, making sure to stop a few feet away. I didn't want to frighten her more than she already was, so I very carefully sat down, so as not to tower over her. Immediately she flinched, looking as if she were trying to climb inside the wall.

My attempts to not scare her obviously failed.

Smiling my most reassuring smile I began with the only thing that came to my mind. "Hello."

Silence. It was what I had expected at least.

"I'm Dr. Cullen, and this is my son Edward," I continued, waving back towards Edward, who was very pointedly keeping his distance. "What's your name?"

Her body tensed at both my introduction and my question, and even though she didn't answer, one look at Edward showed me that her thoughts had betrayed her. My question had hit home.

I decided to be upfront and honest. She knew that we knew she was not Emily and I was afraid that if we danced around the subject much longer, I would risk her possibly harming herself if she thought we knew too much. Not that I thought she would. Such a fragile creature could never do any harm to herself or anyone else - or so I believed at the time.

"Look, I know you're scared. I know you're wondering how we know so much, and the truth is we don't. We only know that you aren't Emily. We know that you are using her body to live in, and we don't want to hurt you, but we also care very much for Emily, and want to make sure that you are both OK. Can I do that? I just want to make sure you weren't seriously injured by Leah."

At the mention of Leah's name she shuddered again and started to look frantically around the room.

"No, she's not here, she can't hurt you." Edward answered her silent question from his corner of the room.

Visibly, she relaxed some. Then, in a very quiet voice, one that even I had to strain to hear said "Snow."

"What was that?" I asked gently. "Snow?"

She nodded.

"Is that your name?"

Slowly, she shook her head. "Snow falling on ice castles," she said in that same quiet voice. "But Snow is easier."

_Snow falling on ice Castles?_ That was quite a mouthful, but I was glad for something else to call her. I couldn't call her Emily for obvious reasons, and it felt wrong to just call her "the girl." So, Snow it would be.

"Well Snow," I said, standing up slowly and extending my hand towards her, "would you please let me take a look at you? I just want to make sure you're ok."

She eyed my hand warily, looking back towards Edward warily. Her eyes rested on him for a moment before turning back to my hand. "He won't hurt you either," I promised, hand still extended, "no one is going to hurt you."

"Sam," she whispered.

"Sam's not here either. And he would never hurt you," I replied even more gently, afraid to shatter what fragile rapport we had.

She gave off another shake of her head, still not taking my hand.

"That's not what she meant," Edward answered quietly enough for only my vampire ears to hear. "She… well, she's worried about him, and wants to know if he's ok?" He finished with a question in his voice, as if he doubted that he'd heard her right.

I looked at Snow curiously for a moment, a thought forming as I took in this new information. It would seem that either Snow had access to all of Emily's thoughts and feelings for Sam, and now felt them herself, or it had something to do with the imprinting phenomenon. I couldn't be sure. I wanted to look towards Edward for his take on it, but was afraid that if I moved my eyes from Snow, she would bolt. The trust I had built so far was tenuous at best.

Still holding my hand out to her, I crouched down again to her eye level.

"Sam's OK," I said, "Leah didn't hurt him, and he's outside wondering if Emily's OK."

Her face flashed in relief and then pain when I mentioned that Sam was concerned for Emily and not her, and I chastised myself for being so thoughtless. _First do no harm._

Despite my thoughts, despite the oath I had taken years ago, I knew I was about to hurt her again, because the truth was I needed to check her out, and I needed to see if there was a way to bring Emily back.

"Please Snow," I pleaded moving my hand slightly closer to her. "Please. For Sam."

That did it. With slow and shaking fingers, she extended her slim bronze hand towards mine. I heard her gasp slightly when her fingers touched my skin and she stared up at me as if realization and some memory had just hit her.

Yes, she definitely had access to Emily's memories, to include knowledge of the Cullen family, and all the ways we weren't human. But she didn't let go, so thankfully those memories told her enough to know that she was safe with me. At least I hoped they did.

Gripping her hand tighter, I gently pulled her to her feet and lead her over to the examination table.

I didn't bother turning the lights on; I could see just as well in the dark, and she seemed to prefer the dim light. I began a routine examination, and aside from all bumps and bruises, and the light reflecting from her eyes when I tried to dilate her pupils, she seemed fine. More than fine. As Leah had pointed out before, all her facial scars were gone.

"Snow, might I ask what happened to your scars?"

Snow just gave a miniscule shrug of her shoulders. Behind me, Edward gave a quiet breath of surprise, and I knew he'd heard her unspoken response. I had to remember to ask him about it later. Right now, I wasn't about to betray her trust in front of her like that. If she didn't want to tell me, then I wouldn't press.

Deftly moving to the back of her neck, my thumb brushed her scar there. "If your other scars are gone, then why is this one still here?" There wasn't even a shrug in response this time.

I sighed to myself, realizing that either trust was quickly fading, or that it was never really there to begin with. Finishing up her exam, I stepped away. She was fine.

Looking into her eyes, I weighed my next words carefully. While I knew that she would probably never answer me, there was a good chance she would still think of what I needed to know.

"Snow," I said slowly, preparing myself for numerous reactions. "I need to know, is there a way to get Emily back?"

Snow looked back at me in horror, her eyes widening. "No!" she gasped. It was the loudest I'd heard her yet. As if startled by her own voice, just as much as she was by my question, she fled back into the corner.

"No! There is no Emily," she mumbled quietly to herself. "Just me. I'm me. This is me." She hugged herself into a ball again continuing to rock back and forth.

I looked at Edward and he nodded his head. She was telling the truth, or at least what she thought was the truth. I thought of Sam's anguished face when I told him the news, of how I would feel if it were me, and it was Esme who was gone. _No!_ I couldn't give up, there had to be a way.

I kneeled down next to Snow again and asked a slightly different question this time. "Snow," she didn't stop her rocking, "is there… Is there a way to remove you from Emily's body without hurting either of you?"

She froze at that question, horror filling her eyes again before she snapped them tightly shut and resumed her rocking. Clearly she wasn't going to answer me. I glanced back at Edward to see if he'd had any better luck than me at catching her answer, and at his grim smile and swift nod in my direction, I knew he had.

I just had one last question left, and this one was mostly out of curiosity, but it was one she should be able to answer.

"This is an easy one, Snow," I said quietly, still trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. "Can you tell me why Emily left the reservation and went to a doctor's office outside of La Push when she knew the reservation was in lockdown?"

Though her rocking faltered for a moment, it didn't stop completely. Snow had paused and considered what she should tell me, most likely digging through Emily's memories for the answer. A look of shock crossed her face as she obviously gained her answer. Behind me, Edward hissed in surprise.

"She's pregnant!"

* * *

**Chapter 8: Waiting**

Once again, we were back where we started. All of us, minus Esme who had volunteered graciously to watch over Snow, were back at home, inhabiting the dining room. Billy, Sam, Jacob, Charlie and Sue Clearwater joined us, crowding into the room to discuss the matter at hand.

"After speaking with her, things became very clear," Edward started. He held the floor again, explaining calmly what, for right now, he and I only knew. "For starters, she's got access to all of Emily's memories. She even realized who I was eventually and tried to hide her thoughts from me. Thankfully, she wasn't very good at it."

Bella smiled. I expected that she liked the fact that she was the only person that Edward could not hear. It was something she took pride in.

"They are indeed invaders. They are parasites of the worst kind. While they don't kill their host bodies, they do something worse: they absorb all the host's memories, and then erase the sub-conscience, or in other words they implant a new soul inside that host and take over their life. And ironically enough, they refer to their own species as "Souls."

"They've been slowly taking over the human population for months now and have already taken over nearly half of humanity. Eventually even the humans will begin to notice. But not for a while; these creatures are very good at what they do, and imitate humans quite well - to a point. As I'm sure you've noticed, they aren't violent at all. They abhor violence of any sort and are, from what I could gather, quite perfectly civilized to each other, without any sort of lying, malice, or war in their society."

"Except for the part where they take over and enslave humanity," Emmett broke in dryly.

Edward smiled bitterly at that, "Yes Emmett, except for that part. In fact they don't even think that what they are doing is wrong. They think that they are helping humanity since prior to their arrival, humans were embroiled in wars all over the globe, along with mass poverty and starvation. All of that is quickly going away thanks to them." Edward raised a hand to stave off more comments from Emmett and continued.

"Snow Falling on Ice Castles tried to hide from me her purpose here, but like I said, she wasn't very good at it. Most of Forks has been taken over at this point – Charlie, you were lucky to get out when you did. In fact I suggest you inform your deputy, who has already been turned, that you will be on an extended leave of absence visiting Bella in Brazil, since no one in Forks knows that any of us are back yet. I'd like to keep it that way.

"Snow's job, as the first of the LaPush residents to be taken, was to scout out the area and see when would be a good time for insertions to begin on the other residents of LaPush, and then start the insertion procedure. She is what they call a "Healer"; their version of a doctor, and again she tried to block me, but I saw a lot that she didn't want me to see regarding insertion procedures.

"So, that leaves us with the question: What do we do next?"

"Simple," Jasper said. "We kill her." Everyone looked at him with a mixture of disapproval and agreement. They wanted to say no because this was Emily, or at least it was her body, but the threat she posed was very real How could we, in good conscience, keep her alive. And yet, I didn't see how, in good conscience, we could kill her. It was an impossible situation.

"That's not an option," I said firmly.

Jasper shook his head. "Carlisle, she knows too much about Vampires and the wolves."

Sounds of agreement both sounded from Rosalie and Emmett. Our family was becoming divided on the subject more quickly than I had expected.

Just as before, a low growl sounded from Sam, who was now in human form. It quieted the room with a snap as all eyes turned to him.

"We're not going to kill her, Sam," Jacob said, tossing a murderous glance towards Jasper and all that were in agreement with him.

"We couldn't do it." Sue stood from her seat, taking a stance behind Sam. The line had been drawn.

"She could kill us all," Jasper stated. "We don't know what she's capable of."

"Edward said they don't have a history of violence," Sue retorted.

"They just killed off half the human population. I'd say that's pretty violent."

"Look," Jacob snapped. "Like it or not, Sam is still imprinted on Emily, meaning he is imprinted on Snow Castles or whatever her name is. The point is that some portion of Emily is still around. He can still feel a connection. No matter how weak it may be, it's still there. So if someone kills her that forces Sam to attack her murderer. Now how do you think that is going to play out?"

I could see Rosalie, Jasper and Emmett ruffle slightly. A fight between Vampires and Wolves would follow, and from experience, nothing good would come of it.

"Besides," Jacob said, softer this time. "How would you feel if this was happening to the person you loved?"

I felt proud of Jacob in that moment as he managed to get each and every person in this room to see the true nature of this problem.

"No one is killing Snow." I stepped forward with this declaration, putting an end to any further argument that may arise. Although, after what Jacob said, I wasn't sure how anyone was supposed to fight this. "I will not allow it." I looked pointedly at Jasper and Emmett, making myself clear. "Emily was three months pregnant prior to Snow's insertion. Meaning Snow is still pregnant."

I looked at Sam solemnly. This wasn't how I had wanted to break the news to him but given the direction of the conversation, I didn't see any other way.

Sam sat, frozen in shock as he looked at me blankly. I think a part of him was trying to come up with a reason as to why I would lie to him like this. I almost wished I was lying.

The room was in a similar state as they tried to process what I had just said. No one could quite believe it though. It wasn't foreseen, nor was it ideal. Unfortunately though, this was reality and this was what we had to face.

"Well that's just perfect," Rosalie hissed. "A glow worm can get pregnant but I still remain sterile."

Bella raised an eyebrow. "I can't believe you just said that." Neither could I.

No one said anything more after that but it was clear that nothing was to happen to Snow at this point. She was safe. At least until the baby was born.

The silence following Rose's outburst grew, until I finally broke it by turning to speak to Bella, ignoring Edward's warning glance. It was her mother, and she had a right to know.

"Bella, Edward did see in Snow's mind a way that we could try to remove the parasite and perhaps get your mother and Phil back."

Bella's eyes brightened with hope at my words, but Edward quickly cut in. "We have no way of knowing if it would actually work, and we could end up killing them," he warned.

"Who would you have us try the procedure out on first Edward? Emily? Mike? Angela? Every human in Forks is someone's loved one." I said quietly.

Edward was about to argue back, but Bella stopped him. "No, he's right. If it doesn't work then I'm no worse off than I was before, and if it does work, then I get my mother back." The pain and angst was clear in her voice.

"I'll do my best, Bella."

"I know, Carlisle."

After another awkward silence Billy Black spoke. "Unfortunately this still has not solved anything as far as our people are concerned. Not all of us are wolves, and none of us have the, um, _natural _protection that the Cullen family has against the invaders. What are we going to do to protect our people?"

"Snow is supposed to report back to _them_ in a week," Edward said. "We can probably coerce her to report via phone that she is still not ready to begin implantation on the rest of the humans here. This may only buy us another week though. So whatever we're going to do, we need to do it quickly because we only have one week, two at tops, before _they_ know that we're on to them."

"Then we need to evacuate." I'm not sure where the decision came from or when I had made it. It seemed like the logical choice at the moment however, and as I looked around the room, I saw that most agreed. "The women and children and anyone who knows about the wolves and vampires need to go to Esme's island.

"I'm not willing to take the chance that the wrong person will become infected and _they_ suddenly know what we are and how to stop us. If we send everyone to Esme's island, that should prevent any unfortunate scenarios where that is concerned. The island is large enough to support everyone that we need to send and it's nearly impossible to infiltrate. And if it comes down to it, it's easily defendable. We'll just have to stock it with food before we send anyone."

"I know this doesn't sound ideal," Alice began. "But have the Volturi been contacted yet? Maybe they could help."

I frowned. The Volturi were the last beings I wanted to go to for help. Especially given the history between us all. Unfortunately, they were strong and had resources that we didn't. I hadn't, at the time, seen any other way.

"Yes," I began slowly. "I spoke with Aro earlier today. It seems that they have noticed a changed as well, but, as Aro put it '_They now taste better than ever Carlisle, you should try one_.'" Behind me, Edward growled. The Volturi were never a favorite subject with him. "In short, they see no reason to prevent an invasion. Vampires can't be infected so they don't see this as a threat."

No one seemed especially surprised by this turn of events, and after a few more mumbled responses, everyone started to disband. Sam hung back though, waiting for almost everyone to leave before he stepped towards me. I was afraid of what he was about to ask, not knowing if I could give him an answer that wouldn't cause more pain.

"Did you need something Sam?" I asked as gently as I could. He was going through so much.

"I… can I…. can I see her?" Sam asked, struggling to maintain his composure.

I paused. "Sam I don't think-"

"Please," he said simply, but his face was a mask of contorted pain. "Please. I just need to see her. Only for a minute. Please."

I opened my mouth to protest again, when suddenly Alice danced over, a huge grin on her face.

"Carlisle!" she sang. "Something's changed!"

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then I saw Edward look up from Bella to stare at Alice, mouth hung open in surprise and wonder at what he saw in her mind.

"The future," Alice trilled. "It's changing Carlisle. There is hope again!"

* * *

**A/N: **As you may or may not have noticed, the original version of this story has been deleted.

This is because it just went through a massive edit & I simply didn't have time to update each and every chapter on here.

Also, I always intended to publish a paperback version of this story for my own bookshelves, so I did that at LULU. com (where you can purchase your own copy, AT COST. I am NOT making a profit.)

You can also download a free e-book/pdf version of the story at LULU. com as well.

Here's the link: www. lulu product/download/event-horizon/6047813

Thanks for all the loyal reading! :) Love you guys!

-Jenny Wren


	2. Book Two, Part One: Snow

**A/N: No, I don't own the Host or Twilight**

**

* * *

Book Two : Part One**

**Snow**

"_Motherhood is the strangest thing; it can be like being one's own Trojan horse_." -Anonymous

* * *

**Chapter One: New**

Even from the beginning this insertion was different from the others.

The body, _my_ body, felt different. I had been a Bear for so long that this body felt too small and fragile to be right. My hands were too weak and small. They could never form the beautiful ice sculptures that they had done for five lifetimes before. But as my vision cleared and I looked at them closer I smiled; they were perfect as the hands of a Healer, which is what I was. I also marveled at the sound of my voice. It was earthy and rich, yet gentle and assuring.

The gentle Healer who'd inserted me - and was there to guide me as I woke up and took in my new surroundings - had smiled kindly at me. Souls were always kind.

It hadn't taken long before I was easily able to manipulate this new body; _my _new body. At the Healer's request, I rifled across the surface of my host's memories to make sure that all the connections in my mind were there. They were. Everything was perfect. I felt perfect. These humans were so rich in their existence. I'd only begun my new life a few moments before, and already I loved it. It was, for lack of a better term, delicious.

I'd known that the Earth hadn't been completely settled when I volunteered to come here, but I hadn't realized that they would need me for such an important and potentially dangerous mission: infiltrating a local tribe of isolated and superstitious humans.

"Wouldn't a Seeker be better for this?" I'd asked, afraid of the dangerous and violence prone humans.

I was informed that there were no Seekers available. This had been a rare opportunity to perform an insertion on one of the tribe members (who apparently never came to this hospital anymore for some reason) without arousing suspicion on the part of the humans, and they'd hoped I'd be willing to do it. There really was no one else. From the information they had gathered, they knew my host body – Emily - had a husband named Sam who was a leader (of sorts) in the tribe. Since I was a Healer, I could easily insert a Seeker in his body as soon as one arrived in the next day or so.

"But anyone of our kind can perform an insertion." I'd replied, confused.

But it didn't matter. I was in this host, and all I could do was either leave and go back into stasis so that they could try with another Soul, or I could continue on as they'd asked.

I didn't want to leave.

To begin with I was already attached to my body and felt very protective of it; also, I didn't want to force another Soul to have to perform this dangerous task, when none of them were any better equipped to deal with the situation than I was.

The fact that I was already so attached and protective of this body surprised me. I'd never cared that much before. A body was a body was a body, right? Only the Soul inside mattered. And yet, I didn't want any other soul in _my_ body. I found the very thought distasteful, and instantly rejected it.

And so I did it. I'd picked up Emily's purse and gone to her car and driven back to LaPush as if it were the most normal and natural thing for me to do, because it was.

I was pleased with how quickly I could recall everything I needed to, and hoped that it would continue. I needed every bit of help I could get my hands on to do this.

As I got closer to Emily's house – _my_ house – I could feel my hands begin to slip on the steering wheel. Looking down, I noticed the dampness on my palms. _Interesting_. What a strange reaction to have because I was nervous. Interesting or not, as I pulled up to my new home, my nerves did not abate, and neither did the sweat on my hands.

I'd climbed out of the car on shaky legs and fought the sudden urge to vomit, which felt totally unrelated to my nerves. But what did I know? I was new to this whole human existence. J ust a few hours old right?

I tried to recall everything I knew about Sam, so that I could be sure to say and do the correct things when I saw him, and suddenly I felt calm. My nerves just left me. Somehow I knew that I would be ok and that Sam would never ever let anything happen to me. Don't ask me how I knew, I just _knew_.

I briefly wondered if this was a human trait that was experienced often. Humans were so different. They did not realize how good they could have it.

With my new sense of calm, I walked inside the house. Immediately, I heard his voice call out and my skin tingled. _I _tingled. It's as if every cell in my body was reaching out for him and before I realized what I was doing my face broke into a huge smile and I raced towards the voice that I instinctively loved so much.

_My _Sam.

I entered the living room and there he was waiting for me, his crooked smile on his face, as he tried to look stern while he asked me some trivial question. Something to do with nobody being allowed to leave LaPush today. I ignored it and froze where I was, staring at him, my entire world tilting on its axis.

He was beautiful.

It was like I was seeing him for the first time. Emily's memories of him didn't do him justice. Tall, muscular, bronze skin, short black hair, and eyes that burned like coals right into my very being.

I didn't understand what was going on. How could I? Human emotions were so new and overwhelming to me. All I knew was that I wanted him, needed him, and he was _mine_.

I began to run to him again, needing to feel him in my arms and to feel his arms around me, when suddenly his expression changed and he looked at me in surprise, almost as if he didn't recognize me. Then, before I even knew what was going on something in my peripheral vision exploded and a mass of fur and snarls was hurled at me.

Before I could even get my hands up another mass of fur and snarls knocked me down and I hit my head hard. Before I completely blacked out I had a flitting memory…

_Werewolves. _

Right, how could I fail to recall something so important?

And then everything was black.

**

* * *

Chapter 2: Questioned **

I awoke inside a dimly lit room, in what appeared to be a clinic of some sort. Perhaps it was LaPush's clinic, but it was too dark to be sure. I gingerly sat up and took measure of my body. It all seemed to be ok, though I was very sore, and certain that I probably had bruises to match.

As my memories slowly began to trickle back I realized that I had been attacked. For some reason one of the Werewolves in the pack tried to kill me.

Werewolves!

This was definitely something the Souls did not know about yet. I needed to warn them, and soon. And get out of here before that werewolf, Leah (my mind supplied the name to me) tried to finish what she started.

I tried to get off the bed, and an involuntary groan escaped my lips. How I wished for some "No Pain," but of course, this clinic would have nothing like that. I was the first of my kind wasn't I?

"I can get you some Tylenol for the pain if you like," a gentle voice from the corner asked.

I froze, my heart hammering against my chest. I'd thought I was alone, because up until that voice sounded, I'd not heard or sensed anyone else in the room.

My eyes adjusted to the dark and focused on the corner where the voice came from, and slowly I began to make out a smiling, beautiful, marble skinned woman. She seemed to be the embodiment of the children's fairy tale character, Snow White. Had she not taken a slow step forward I would have thought she was a statue.

From here, two things happened at once; first, my body instantly reacted and threw myself into the furthest corner away from her, and second, my mind screamed at me "COLD ONE!"

_Vampire. _

It seemed that LaPush and Forks had many secrets from the rest of humanity, secrets that I doubted the Souls were capable of dealing with. The Cold Ones were dead and indestructible. They were not suitable hosts. The Werewolves were violent, and I didn't know if we would even be able to live through a shift to the wolf form.

My mind raced as I took all of it in.

Everything.

Vampires, Werewolves, Treaties, Sam, Leah.

Everything.

The Cold One, Esme, the gentle "mother" (if my memory was accurate) tried to come closer to me and seemed to be asking me something again, but I just hugged the wall tighter, closed my eyes and ignored her. Rocking back and forth I tried to make sense of it all.

Esme took my hint and went back into her corner, resuming her statuesque pose once again.

I just rocked and rocked and rocked, and my mind flew through it all. I felt like I was living an entire lifetime in just a few moments. I don't know how long I sat there for, minutes or days, but it was interrupted before I was done, and before I'd come remotely close to figuring anything out.

I tensed in fear again as the door to the room opened, blinding me momentarily; I was certain that Leah, or perhaps Sam, was coming to finish what they'd begun, and at this point I hardly blamed them.

Those particular memories had been some of the most painful to go through. Leah's grief at losing Sam had made me cry. And thoughts of what Sam must be going through right now were so difficult for me that I instantly shied away from them.

Sam… my heart ached for him and I yearned for him. I didn't understand why; memories alone should not have had this effect on me. It was as if this body had a physical need to be with him. I nearly welcomed the idea of him coming to kill me; at least it would mean I got to see him again.

But instead of the feared wolf attack, two human shapes entered the room quietly while Esme just as quietly slipped out.

The door closed and I was plunged into darkness once again, and I didn't mind. The dark helped me think clearly. As my eyes adjusted, I saw the two figures evaluating me, holding some sort of silent council. I didn't know why they were here… but maybe they knew if Sam was ok.

Suddenly my heart started to pound faster and I realized I didn't know if Sam had survived the fight with Leah. I stared at the two figures in horror, hoping that Sam was ok. If anything happened to Sam…

Interrupting my thoughts, one of them moved towards me and I was so startled I scrambled closer to the wall on instinct. My eyes made out his face in the darkness; Carlisle, the father, the peacemaker and leader among the Cold Ones. I tried to relax as he stopped a few feet away and sat down, but my instincts to fear him were so ingrained I still jerked away from him. It was foolish of me. Everyone knew that Carlisle would never hurt anyone; even the council elders trusted him.

Then he smiled at me, and I was momentarily dazzled by him. He was beautiful. But they all were - it was part of what made them deadly. The perfect hunters. Still, he was hard not to trust. His smile was so reassuring. I realized I was staring at him and that he was talking to me. _Focus _I said to myself, looking away from his distracting face.

"…my son Edward. What's your name?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

I froze. _They know!_ They somehow KNEW that I was not Emily!

That was what I had not been able to figure out! Why had Leah attacked me? Why had Sam hesitated when he saw me? And suddenly the answer was there in my mind as my hand went up and felt my now healed face.

The scars were gone.

The Healer, in his attempt to show kindness and heal me had really just exposed me. I knew he'd had good intentions, but hadn't he thought this through? Clearly humanity did not have this sort of technology, though perhaps they would have if they hadn't been so focused on wars and weapons. While the Healer had only done his job, he'd also given me away. Before I could dwell on that thought any longer, Carlisle was talking again.

"Look, I know you're scared. I know you're wondering how we know so much, and the truth is we don't. We only know that you aren't Emily. We know that you are using her body to live in, and we don't want to hurt you, but we also care very much for Emily, and want to make sure that you are both OK. Can I do that? I just want to make sure you weren't seriously injured by Leah."

I shuddered at the mention of Leah's name and looked frantically around the room, expecting another attack.

"No, she's not here, she can't hurt you." Edward answered my silent question from his corner of the room.

Without even realizing it, I felt some of my tension leave me. If they had intention of killing me they would have done so by now. The least I could do was tell them my name. And maybe, maybe if I did, they would tell me if Sam was ok. My heart panged as soon as I thought of his name, and I had a hard time speaking. I was so scared for him now. Opening my lips, I revealed my name, hoping that the information I strangely craved about Sam would soon follow.

Apparently I was nearly too quiet for a Vampire.

"What was that?" Carlisle asked gently. "Snow?"

All I could do was nod, before he continued.

"Is that your name?"

He was so gentle, and I found that the longer I was in their presence, the braver I was getting. Memories of the bears and my past lives filled my head, reminding me of who I once was and prompting me to give them my full name.

"Snow falling on ice castles."

Of course I knew that was a mouthful for humans, so I shortened it to Snow. It was easier.

Carlisle accepted this, and slowing extending his hand to me while he stood up said, "Well Snow, would you please let me take a look at you? I just want to make sure you're ok."

I eyed his hand warily, I wanted to trust him… and yet, he was still a Vampire. I looked past him and Edward at the door, and wondered if maybe Sam was out there. Waiting for me? Waiting to kill me more than likely. I looked at Carlisle's hand again, still outstretched for me.

"He won't hurt you either," he promised. "No one is going to hurt you."

Now was my chance it seemed; if he wanted my hand, I was going to find out about Sam, and so I asked, his name trembling on my lips.

"Sam's not here either. He won't hurt you," Carlisle replied gently.

What? No, that's not what I meant, but before I could explain, Carlisle seemed to grasp this and said, "Sam's OK. Leah didn't hurt him, and he's outside wondering if Emily's OK."

I was consumed with relief. Sam was safe, and he was waiting outside!

Then it hit me like a blow to the stomach.

He was waiting outside to see if Emily was ok.

Emily.

Not me.

_Emily._

I fought back the tears pricking the corners of my eyes. This was ridiculous! I didn't even know Sam! How could I possibly feel this way about him? How could I… love him?

And then I knew. In that moment I knew that I loved him, that everything I'd been feeling for him was love and need, and that I would do anything for him. Anything. I just wanted him to be happy.

"Please Snow," Carlisle broke into my thoughts as if he could read them. "Please. For Sam."

That did it. With slow and shaking fingers, I extended my slim bronze hand towards his. I saw Edward looking at me, and as I finally touched Carlisle's hand I gasped quietly with the realization that while Carlisle wasn't reading my mind, Edward certainly could and most likely was.

Gripping my hand tighter, Carlisle gently pulled me to my feet and led me over to the examination table, while I valiantly tried NOT to think about any details about The Souls, my mission here to LaPush, and most of all, just how fragile we really were.

Of course that only meant that those thoughts were pervading my mind and I could only hope that it was too much for Edward to take in and too foreign for him to comprehend. I could not betray my kind. Were these Cold Ones to find out, they could destroy us all; and while I now had no doubt that they valued human lives, I didn't think it extended to Souls.

I tried to think of a song I could hum in my brain to distract myself from thinking things I ought not to be thinking, and mentally cursed myself for not spending at least one life with The Bats. I just could never bring myself to be blind!

I realized that Carlisle was asking me about my healed scars, and so I just gave a miniscule shrug of my shoulders and tried not to think of how it was done, or the fact that I was a Healer myself, and quite proficient at this kind of healing. Edward's quiet gasp of surprise confirmed my suspicions. He was listening to my thoughts, and I was doing a rotten job of keeping him out of my head.

And so I tuned them both out while Carlisle continued his exam of me. I could have told him everything he needed to know. I was fine; just a bit sore and bruised. But I didn't trust myself to think - much less speak - right now. I would reveal too much if I did.

But then one question broke through my concentration.

"Snow, I need to know, is there a way to get Emily back?"

I looked back at Carlisle in horror, my eyes widening.

"No!" I heard myself gasp, and then I fled back into the corner. I must not think it! Must not think of how to remove a Soul. _This is me, I AM ME!_ _There is no Emily!_ I repeated those words to myself over and over again as rocked back and forth in the corner fighting to keep Soul/Host implantation and removal thoughts from my head.

I sensed someone kneeling next to me and then heard Carlisle's voice again. Why wouldn't he just leave me alone?

"Snow."

I didn't stop my rocking.

"Is there… Is there a way to remove you from Emily's body without hurting either of you?"

I froze at that question, horror filling me again as the answer to that question flashed fleetingly inside my mind. I snapped my eyes tightly shut again and resumed my rocking and my mental mantra.

But Carlisle wouldn't let up. He just had to keep asking questions.

"This is an easy one Snow. Can you tell me why Emily left the reservation and went to a doctor's office outside of La Push when she knew the reservation was in lockdown?"

This paused me for a minute as I searched my mind for the answer to his question, since, now that he asked it, I was curious myself. Realization came crashing down on me as the memory of Emily looking at a positive home pregnancy test entered my mind.

Almost simultaneously I heard Edward hiss in surprise.

"She's pregnant!"

**

* * *

Chapter Three: Decided**

Esme was back again, standing as still as a statue in the corner, while I rocked catatonically in the corner trying to process what I'd just "remembered."

I was pregnant.

_I was a Mother._

I knew how reverently humans regarded Mothers, but over 50% of the human population had the potential to be mothers. With the Souls it was closer to 1%. Motherhood was a big deal among the Souls; potential Mothers were revered.

Perhaps it was due to the nature of how a Soul became a mother; because the mother never survived. A Soul mother died so that thousands might come into being and live.

Altruism at its most complete.

Unlike any of our other Hosts, humans also had live births, and sometimes the mothers died there as well. It was also a long, very involved process.

A live birth was so different from eggs or spawn; and so also very different from anything we as a species were familiar with.

It was so much more… personal. So much closer to our own births.

I stopped rocking and looked down at my abdomen trying to comprehend what I knew to be going on in there. Cells dividing and forming into a new life. Emily figured she was nearly three months along by the time she had her appointment, and I recalled something that Emily read in a baby book in the waiting room. A human fetus already had fingernails by three months. I don't know why that struck such a chord with me, but it did.

This baby, Sam's baby, my baby, was real, with fingernails and everything.

I was a mother.

Tears filled my eyes, and I was confused at first because I wasn't sad at all. I was happy, I was exuberant, and I was filled with joy.

And then just as suddenly I was filled with guilt and despair. I remembered how happy Emily had been. How she was planning different ways to tell Sam the good news.

I'd taken all that away from her. From both of them.

Realization hit me with the force of a battering ram. I was a parasite, and this was wrong.

We were wrong to come here, to come to Earth. We were wrong to murder humanity like this. All we saw was war, death, destruction, poverty, famine… We didn't see the beauty. The love, family, loyalty. The human emotions that were so far above and beyond anything any Soul had ever felt before.

I started to sob as I realized the greatest crime and atrocity my species had ever committed:

Genocide.

I should have never left the Bears. They welcomed the Souls. It was not murder to live out a life with them. I was happy there. But even as that thought crossed my mind, I realized that no, I wasn't happy there. I was merely content.

In order to truly know happiness one has to know sorrow, sadness, and pain. I'd never experienced any of those emotions before coming to Earth, and now it seemed that I'd lived more in one day as a human than I had in five lives as a Bear.

I could never go back to that. Yet how could I stay? By the very fact that I was here and alive, I had for - all intents and purposes - murdered Emily.

But was it really murder? Was it murder when a species didn't take advantage of what they had? Was it murder when all they did was go about, killing each other in order to serve selfish acts and satisfy wants instead of needs? What made Emily so special that she should deserve this gift over me? There was no telling whether or not she would have been a good mother. She might not have even had the skills to cope with a child as precious as the one growing inside me.

_That's not the point._

A small voice, one that the humans called a conscience, was constantly berating everything I knew. You didn't just take a life because the actions of certain members of their kind had been wrong. Just because mothers in the past had failed, it didn't mean Emily would. From everything I had gathered, Emily was kind and gentle. She would have raised this baby with Sam and… that gave me pause.

Sam.

No one deserved to have the people they loved taken from them. No matter who you were, that should never be an option. I had only been in Emily's body for a day and yet her memories were so strong that I couldn't imagine my life without Sam.

Humans had an ability that I thought I had known, but had never truly felt until now.

Love.

It was an emotion so powerful that I knew it could overcome all boundaries. And humans felt it to their fullest extent. They thrived because of love. And love is what made them beautiful.

This same love now filled me and while I didn't deserve it after what I had done, I felt it towards Sam. I didn't know what I would do if he were taken away from me. The thought alone was so horrible that I couldn't quite comprehend it. And here I was, having put him in that same position. Not only was the person that he loved gone forever, but now the object that he hated, was carrying their child. We may have set out to make the world a better place, but we were causing nothing but destruction, pain, and misery.

And so I was decided.

I would preserve life. All life.

Even if it meant my own death, I would help save humanity, because for all its flaws, ugliness, and hate, it was still the single most beautiful thing I'd encountered in my many lives, and I loved it.

I would save it, if I could.

I looked at my abdomen and smiled as I placed a hand over it. They wouldn't do anything to me while I was pregnant, I was sure of that. That left me roughly six months to do all that I could to help the humans.

"Don't come early little guy," I whispered softly. "I'm going to need all the time I can get to make this work." And then, even softer, "I love you."

**

* * *

Chapter Four: Believed **

I didn't have much time to bask in the glow of my decision, or to begin to doubt it, because suddenly the door was thrown open, and light spilled in, silhouetting the four figures right outside the door.

Before I had a chance to adjust my eyes, the lights came on overhead, truly blinding me, and suddenly I was afraid.

Had I misjudged them? Were they going to kill me pregnant or not? Was I truly that hated by them?

I couldn't blame them for hating me, but the child? The innocent baby? Would they condemn it to death for my crimes as well?

My hands wrapped around my abdomen protectively. I didn't think I could bring myself to fight, and honestly against Vampires or Werewolves I didn't stand a chance, yet some instinct was driving me to protect this baby.

My baby.

Carlisle must have seen my movements because suddenly his voice was drifting across the room. It tried to sooth me and while I wanted to give into it, I couldn't until I was sure that they weren't here to cause my child any harm.

"Snow, we're sorry," he said gently. Crouching down, he placed himself at my level. His face was open and apologetic as he looked me in the eye.

"We didn't mean to startle you. Alice here," he gestured to a slight pixie of a girl, standing over his shoulder, "had a vision and we needed to talk to you about it. Humanity's future has apparently changed."

I stared at him, not sure why he was telling me this. Could this mean that they trusted me? You wouldn't tell this sort of thing to your enemies, would you?

"Snow, we think that you might have had something to do with this."

"Me?"

Carlisle nodded. "Edward caught the tail end of one of your thoughts. You made some sort of decision just now."

I stared at him for a moment until it hit me. I had made a decision. The decision to save humanity.

"I… yes," I said slowly. "I don't want to do what I originally was sent here to do."

"What do you want to do?"

I let out a breath. Well, I may as well jump in with both feet.

"I want to help you. I don't want my kind taking over. I think we have misunderstood your people and while our intentions may have once been good, I think that we are now wrong."

Carlisle nodded, but let me continue. "I don't want to kill anyone though, Soul or Human. And if I'm going to help you, I need both the wolves and the vampires to promise the exact same thing."

"I can promise that on behalf of my family," Carlisle said almost immediately. He turned, looking over his shoulder to Jacob Black, giving him what I assumed was a prompting look.

"Same for my pack," Jacob said, although it seemed somewhat begrudgingly.

"And the others?"

"I'll talk to them," Carlisle assured. "I can't guarantee they will like the idea, but I think with a little time, they will promise the same."

I looked at the group around me, my hand still on my abdomen. I knew that while they might not like me, and certainly not my kind, they would protect my child at any cost. Swallowing, I began to tell them all the things that I had tried to keep from Edward earlier.

"I'm supposed to report back in one week. It is then that I will be given everything I need to implant Souls into the humans of LaPush. Now, obviously I will not be doing that, but I will have to keep them in their cryogenic chamber until we can find a way to transport the Souls safely off the planet."

"And just how exactly is that going to help humanity?"

It was Jacob's voice that had sneered from the corner.

"Humans are still being implanted around the world. They are still dying, being erased by the Souls. We can't just sit back and pretend like the world outside of LaPush doesn't exist. We need to do something more aggressive. Tell the world what is going on."

I looked at him, wondering if all humans acted as rashly as this one.

"Are you suggesting I should I 'go public'? Come out with everything I know? And who would believe me if I did? We make up over 50% of your population now (the underdeveloped countries were the easiest to take over initially), and the only people who can tell a difference between us without a flashlight are Vampires and Werewolves. Are you prepared to 'come out' as well? To tell the world about your existence?"

"Of course not," Jacob snapped. "But we can't just let the rest of humanity die either."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," Edward muttered. "But Jacob's right. We can't sit back and let your Souls take over the remainder of humanity. We can't come out ourselves though either. That's not an option."

"Look," I said gently. "I don't think I can save the whole world. All I know is that I can perhaps help preserve LaPush. Humans will be safe here. Souls don't lie, and so they will trust that I have implanted them in Human hosts. And we are not here to change things; only to experience, so they will not be surprised if the LaPush residents continue to remain isolated. Of course Souls will want to continue to use First Beach like they always have, but here, the weather benefits humans as well as vampires. There will be no sun to give away the lack of reflection in their eyes."

"So what do we do then?" Jacob demanded. "Just hunker down in LaPush while the rest of the world gets murdered?"

His words drove inside me like a knife, and tears sprang unbidden in my eyes as I struggled to answer him.

"Yes. It is the only way. If you reveal your hand now, all the humans you love will be used as hosts. All we can do is wait, and hope."

"Hope for what? That they'll eventually figure out that this is the last outpost of humans just ripe for the picking?" Jacob asked sarcastically.

"No," Edward cut in before I could answer, and a cold arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me towards them. It was Esme, trying to comfort me while I cried for all the humans that I knew would die.

"Haven't you been paying attention Jake? The Souls are all alike. They don't see what they are doing as murder. Snow has only come to the realization because of her bond with Sam, and because of her pregnancy. Given time, more and more Souls will come to think and feel the same way Snow does. At least, we hope. There really is no other way." Edward finished.

"Well, we don't all have mind reading abilities Edward," Jacob retorted, but then at Edward's raised eyebrow he amended, "In human form at least."

That seemed to break the tension. Everyone chuckled some, and I was calming down.

"It feels good to have a plan." Edward said; he was starting to strike me as a bit obsessive compulsive. "Will it work Alice?"

The grin on Alice's face was answer enough for all of us.

**

* * *

Chapter 5: Accepted**

_4__ months later_

Jacob was right; the elders immediately agreed to combine the two wolf packs, once they realized they really had no other options. Sam had phased into his wolf form and disappeared into the woods.

He was "pulling a Jacob" as the other wolves had jokingly said, and I seemed to recall that yes, Jacob had done this a few times in the past. Wasn't it because of Bella… Edward's wife? The mother of Renesme, the girl he'd imprinted on?

Wow.

And I thought my situation with Leah/Sam/Emily/my baby was complicated.

Everyone except Sam seemed to be taking everything, including my existence, in stride. Of course, they all missed Emily (to my eternal guilt and sorrow) but no one appeared to hold a grudge against me. They all seemed to accept that it was not my fault, that I'd not asked to be placed in Emily, and that this was, in fact, natural for me and my kind.

I suppose if anyone would accept a "parasite" being natural in a human host, it would have to be Werewolves and Vampires, both of whom had no choice in what they were (well, besides Bella), but had to live with the realities of their existence the best way they knew how, much like I did. In fact Leah, of all people, seemed to get along with me now, better than she had after Sam had imprinted on Emily. There was no way she could know how I felt about Sam, or I doubted that she'd be so cordial.

Sam.

There was no denying that I was pining for him, though I thought I was hiding it fairly well. It seemed that only little Seth caught on to how desperate I was to know how Sam was fairing. He thankfully kept me updated as often as he could, though it was always the same.

"He's somewhere in Canada, and he doesn't think much about anything. He's trying to be pure wolf and forget Emily, forget you, and forget… well forget everything."

Truly, I couldn't blame him.

It went without saying that I could no longer stay in the clinic. At first the Cullens had been adamant that I stay with them, to protect me from the Quileutes who were sure to want to make me pay for "murdering Emily." But when it became apparent that no such thing was going to happen, that I was trusted (apparently a lot of stock was placed in Alice's visions and Edward's mind reading ability), and that I still was not completely comfortable around the Vampires, I went back to my home.

Or rather, Emily and Sam's home.

But Sam was gone (it still hurt to think that), and so was Emily. And both because of me.

So, perhaps it was a bit of self-punishment to go there and force myself to face all those memories. Memories of Emily and Sam. But the truth was I relished it. I loved Sam. I wanted Sam. And if all I had left of him was the home he had with Emily, the pictures on the wall, the scents and belongings, then as sick and masochistic as it was of me, I would take the torture gladly. Anything to be near him, even if it was painful reminders of the lives I had ruined.

I wasn't sure if it was the guilt or the pregnancy that kept me tossing and turning in my sleep, but I was easily woken at night, and rarely got a good night's rest.

Which is how I found myself waking up to a gentle knocking on my front door. I had been having the most wonderful dream. I couldn't remember the details, but I knew that Sam was in it. As I opened my eyes, I realized that I was sleeping on his side of the bed again. I inhaled the faint memory of his scent from the pillow, and sat up out of bed slowly; anything too fast and I was likely to get dizzy.

I wrapped my bathrobe awkwardly around my very-pregnant belly and shuffled to the door stifling a yawn. Glancing at the clock I saw it was the middle of the night… no wonder I was exhausted! The knocking resumed with more force this time.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I called sleepily, and opened the door to a very disheveled and very naked Leah. I quickly threw my robe around her and beckoned her inside.

"What's wrong?" I asked, afraid for the answer - afraid that we'd been found out.

So far, our little ruse had worked. The Souls suspected nothing, and we had a nice stack of incubating Souls in a secure room in the Cullen home. As far as the Souls were concerned LaPush was no longer human, no longer a threat. But with Leah's late and hasty arrival I was afraid it could mean only one thing: we'd been found out.

That or something had happened to Sam. My heart seized at the thought of Sam being hurt, or even worse, dead, and then my mind immediately rejected that idea. Before I could think of much more, Leah spoke up rapidly, "Carlisle needs you at the clinic right now!"

"Why? What's wrong?" My heart was racing again.

"Edward and Bella found a hiker when they were hunting. Carlisle wants to try an extraction again."

I frowned at that. The last extraction had not gone well, not at all . I had safely removed the Soul from Bella's mother, and had moved to perform the same on her step-father. Unfortunately, he'd awoken, and completely misunderstood the situation - or maybe fully understood it - and had shredded his brain stem. There was nothing I could do to save him. No amount of "Heal" could have brought him back.

To make things worse, Bella's mother never regained consciousness. Bella and Charlie chose not to re-implant the Soul in Renee's body, but instead to euthanize her. I can't say whether or not I agreed with Bella's choice. Renée wasn't my mother, after all, and who could know how they would behave in a similar situation?

Renée's funeral had been the first I'd ever attended and it was the saddest thing I'd ever seen. I honestly don't know if there is anything more heartbreaking than seeing a person physically unable to cry for their mother.

Bella was gracious and didn't blame me. She said simply that she had already resigned herself to never seeing her mother again once she became a Vampire, but I could tell she was hiding a lot of pain, and was just trying to make me feel better.

Of course I blamed myself. How could my race do this? How could we murder? They just didn't understand; if only they could be made to understand….

And so, after that failed experiment, of course I was shocked that Edward and Bella would want me to try again. Quite frankly I didn't see the point, and I certainly didn't want to hurt anyone else.

So I told Leah just that.

"It's different this time," she said, shivering in anticipation. I could tell she was barely able to keep herself from phasing back into a wolf. "This time Edward heard TWO voices in ONE head."

And with that she was out the door and racing away on all fours, leaving me standing there stunned.

**

* * *

Chapter 6: Needed**

I walked into the clinic's waiting room and saw their hopeful faces; it seemed that everyone, at least all the Cullens, plus Jacob, Seth, and Leah were there. Scratch that, Bella was gone.

"She's at home with Nessie," Edward responded to my unvoiced question.

I could see why this would be hard for her – after what happened to her mother_._ Edward nodded his head, actually, just slightly inclined it, as if he wanted to secretly confirm my thought. It seemed that Bella didn't want anyone to know just how much she was still grieving.

I'd noticed these past four months that Bella tended to closely guard her feelings, except when it came to Edward or Nessie. That thought made Edward smile, and left me chagrined – I was still not used to his ability to read minds. Thankfully, before my thoughts could get me in any more trouble, Carlisle strode in with an excited smile on his face.

"Snow!" he called, and offered me a white doctor's coat, much like his. "Let's get started, shall we?"

I flailed around trying to get into the coat. My girth was really making simple tasks like this more and more awkward. I could only imagine how it would be during my final month when I was REALLY huge. Moving around would be so much easier afterwards – but wait, I wasn't going to be around after the baby was born was I? I felt a sharp pang in my heart at the thought of leaving this place, these people that I loved and cared for, of leaving my baby.

Cold hands brushed my arms and I let out a startled shriek as someone helped me tug the lab coat on. Turning around I saw it was Jasper, acting like the southern gentlemen that he was at heart. His normally pained expression unfroze for a bit as he flashed me a dazzling smile, and I felt my knees go week.

I hated it when they did that!

Edward, of course, heard that thought, and coming up next to Jazz flashed me another brilliant smile. Great; now I was being dazzled in stereo.

"After you," he said with his velvet voice and motioned ahead past Carlisle, who was grinning at me just as brilliantly as the other two. The Cullens took great pleasure in teasing me, and I was just too tired to deal with it right now. It was the middle of the night for goodness sakes, and unlike them I actually needed sleep!

"Don't you start too!" I wagged a finger under Carlisle's nose, and warily looked around for Emmett. I was surprised he wasn't here harassing me along with the other three. At Carlisle's playfully hurt expression, which seeming to proclaim pure innocence, I shook my head, chuckled under my breath, and walking briskly down the hall asked, "What can you tell me about the patient?"

Suddenly all business, Carlisle answered, "He appears to be approximately in his late twenties, Caucasian, male, and quite healthy. His ID says his name is Bryan Trusdale. Bella and Edward came across him while they were hunting. But the big news is that Edward heard _TWO_ voices in Bryan's head."

I looked at Edward for confirmation, and he obligingly nodded his head before continuing where Carlisle left off.

"Not only were there two distinct voices but they were talking to each other. Well, arguing with each other, actually. So, Bella snuck up on him - not hard to do since he was busy having an internal shouting match - knocked him senseless, and then we brought him back here; after I made sure she didn't give him a concussion or anything."

"Wait, you heard two distinct voices and they were arguing with each other?" I asked shocked and surprised. I'd never heard Emily before, much less argued with her. In fact I'd never even heard of anything like this happening in the billions of Soul insertions that'd been done in the galaxy. How did we know the person didn't just suffer from some sort of psychological disorder like schizophrenia?

"Well for starters Bryan kept calling the other voice, '_Sings to the trees_,' nasty names like 'filthy alien invader' and 'tree-hugging alien hippy.' I'm pretty sure the Human was talking to the Soul. And to answer your first question, apparently _Sings to the Trees_ is a nature lover and is always going on hikes, etc, whereas Bryan would much prefer to remain in his mother's basement playing video games." Edward finished with a dazzling grin.

My mind whirled with the implications of what I'd heard. "So, you both think that because the Human consciousness still appears to be there, we could safely remove the Soul, who appears to have been a bat before, and the Human would come back?"

They both nodded their heads. I had to agree; it made sense.

It also made me wonder why Emily had never tried to talk to me. If humans could hang on why didn't she? Did she not love Sam enough? Was she not strong enough?

"Nonsense," Edward interrupted my thoughts. "Bella always said Emily was one of the strongest willed women she knew, and everyone could see how much she loved Sam. No, I think perhaps it was just because she was surprised. She had no time to defend herself."

"Then why would this guy, Bryan, still be around?" I asked out loud for Carlisle's benefit.

"I don't know. Hopefully he'll be able to tell us when you and Carlisle are done."

And there he was, Bryan Trusdale, laid out on the operating table.

_I hope we don't kill him._

* * * * *

The Soul had been safely removed, and Esme was currently storing it in the freezer vault at the Cullen's home. All we could do now was wait.

The room was more crowded than I liked. Carlisle and I were there for obvious reasons, Jasper was there to calm Bryan down if he did wake up, Edward was there to read his thoughts, and Jake was there because he said if the blood suckers got to be there at least one wolves needed to be there too.

Personally, I thought it was bad idea. I didn't think the guys realized how intimidating they all looked together. Thankfully everyone had agreed that Emmett didn't need to be in there. I loved Emmett but he was just, well, HUGE.

"So how exactly are we going to explain to this guy what happened?" Jacob asked, breaking the silence that had been coursing through the room.

"The same way we explain things to you," Edward said. "Nice and slow."

A small smile had formed on Edward's lips, one that I noticed showed up quite frequently when he was talking to Jacob. It was strange to me how much enjoyment he took from annoying the Werewolf.

Jacob rolled his eyes and turned to me. "So can I help with extracting Edward when the time comes? Maybe we could get Nessie involved. It would be like a family outing."

"You're not part of my family."

"I'm so much a part of your family that I'm inseparable, actually. In fact, if I were gone, both the women in your life would be upset."

"They'd get over it. Sooner or later they are bound to become sick of the smell of dog."

"Keep dreaming bloodsucker."

"Don't have to dream. Alice can see the future, remember?"

"Quiet." Carlisle said, uncharacteristically severe, but then I saw why. The patient was waking up.

"Wha-what…" he mumbled groggily, his left hand twitching. I reached out to help him sit up, since the feeling of the Cullens' icy skin, or Jake's burning skin would probably startle him. That's when I realized that Bryan was actually the only _real _Human in the room. For some reason I found this to be funny, and judging by the knowing smile on Edward's face, he agreed with me.

Bryan clung to my arm like it was a lifeline as I gently rocked him to an upright position.

"Where am I?" he asked, pressing a hand against his eyes. "Is it gone? How did you find me? Who are you?"

"You're safe and yes it's gone. As for the rest, that will take some explaining," Carlisle answered, while simultaneously shining a light in Bryan's eyes. Bryan didn't seem to object, so Carlisle proceeded to check his vitals while I stood behind Bryan supporting him. He was still pretty weak.

"Tell me, how were you able to resist implantation?"

"Oh, is that what they call it?" Bryan asked. At Carlisle's nod, he continued, "I dunno really. I guess I just resisted. I knew we were being invaded. I always knew aliens would come someday. I just didn't know that our own government would harbor and help them!

"It was conspiracy all along. I guess they got tired of anal probes and decided to mess with our heads. I'm originally from Las Vegas, and after my mom came back home with shiny eyes and stopped nagging me about everything, I realized she was one of _them_, and I had to get out. Yeah, as you can see, I still got caught, and they stuck that other mind in my brain. I bet they anal probed me too."

_Great_, I thought, _the only successful removal we've done and the guy's a conspiracy theory paranoid nut who lives in his mother's basement!_

That got a lopsided grin out of Edward, and Bryan, wondering who Edward was smiling at, looked over his shoulder at me, just as Carlisle moved his light to check out Bryan's ears.

Three things happened simultaneously, Edward's smile froze, Carlisle's light reflected off my eyes, and Bryan lunged for me screaming.

"Nooooo! I won't go back! You can't make me!!!!"

I felt his fingers brush against my throat, but before I could back away I was suddenly out in the hall in Edward's arms. He gently set me against the floor, and Alice danced up.

"Is she OK?" she trilled in her girlish voice.

"Yes, but perhaps it would be better if we kept Bryan away from Snow until he understands."

"Of course," I said. "He's just been through a terrible ordeal at the hands of my kind. I would have attacked me too."

"No you wouldn't have," Alice said defensively. "You're incapable of hurting anyone or anything."

"Alice, could you please take Snow home? She's done all she can tonight."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm fine. Alice probably ought to stay here anyways. I'll be OK. Besides, I'm not an invalid just because I'm pregnant. I can still drive you know," I teased.

Edward smiled and thanked me, while Alice gave me a quick hug and reminded me that my baby shower was in a few days.

I tried not to groan too loudly; the idea of hosting a baby shower seemed to make her so happy, so I'd let her run with it. Bella warned me against it. She said Alice would go overboard, and she was right! But Alice was a difficult person to say no to.

Edward and Alice turned to leave, and I caught Edward's sleeve to stop him. I stared intently into his butterscotch eyes and _thought_ at him, too scared of the response to voice my question out loud.

Edward met my eyes and shook his head gently. "I'm sorry, no. I would have told you if I'd ever heard Emily."

I didn't know if I was happy or saddened by that. Both probably, but I was too exhausted to sort out my feelings right now. I needed to sleep, badly.

I walked out to my car and sleepily noticed the sun was starting to come up. At least it would help keep me awake on the drive home.

When I arrived home, I pulled the car onto the gravel driveway, enjoying the familiar sound of the crunch beneath my tires. I yawned loudly; I needed a nice long nap. Trying to pull an all-nighter when you are six months pregnant is not a good idea. Shuffling up to the front door, I was reaching into my purse for my keys when I noticed the front door was not fully closed.

That was odd… I was certain that I'd closed and locked it on my way to the clinic, and yet here it was open. I shook my head trying to clear it; obviously I hadn't closed and locked it. Or more than likely Leah or one of the rest of the pack had let themselves in and were crashed out on the couch. The pack had been very quick to resume their old habit of raiding Sam and Emily's fridge and food, and I didn't mind one bit. I liked the company.

"Hello?" I called, as I entered, tossing my purse on the floor and awkwardly shrugging out of my coat. "Hey, I'm going to catch a nap right now, so make yourself at –"

My words caught in my throat as I turned around and saw the shape illuminated by the rising sun streaming in from the window shutters.

I was right about it being a member of the pack. Just not one I'd ever expected.

"Sam," I breathed.


	3. Book Two, Part Two: Snow

**Book Two : Part Two**

**Snow**

"_Motherhood is the strangest thing; it can be like being one's own Trojan horse_." -Anonymous

**

* * *

Chapter 7: Revealed**

Sam rose to his feet slowly. He was haggard and worn, and the poorly-fitting clothes he wore were covered in stains and bad smells, as if he'd found them in a dumpster, which, come to think of it, he probably had.

But I didn't really see any of this. How could I, when he was looking at me the way he was? His face was filled with such pain and longing, it nearly broke my heart.

I took a hesitant step towards him almost as if I were being pulled. In truth I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around him and make him swear he would never leave me again. He didn't move away from me, he didn't flinch, so I took silence as consent and stepped closer again. And again. And Again.

Eventually, we were mere inches apart, both of us locked into each other's gaze. The tension was rising, and I so badly wanted to touch him just to make sure he was real, and yet at the same time I was so afraid of shattering this, whatever it was we had.

Suddenly he averted his eyes, took two steps back, fell into the couch and said, "She's really gone, isn't she?"

"Yes."

What else could I say? I tried to ignore the fact that my heart was breaking into a million little pieces. Of course he had come back for Emily, and not me. I was being foolish again.

His shoulders sagged at my pronouncement, and he buried his face in his hands as his body began to convulse. It took me a moment to realize what was going on.

He was weeping.

He was mourning the loss of his wife, the love of his life, the person more dear to him than life itself. All these months gone, and he had yet to do this. He truly didn't believe it until now.

My heart ached for him.

And I found that I was weeping too. It hurt me to see him like this. To see him in so much pain. I'd felt bad about taking Emily's body before, but now I finally felt like the monster I was.

Before I had a chance to even think about what I was doing, I was by his side, dropping down onto the couch, and sliding my arms around him. He resisted for only a moment, and then buried his head into my shoulder and sobbed.

We wept together; we wept for the loss of Emily, for the cruelty of fate that had put me in her place, and mostly for the fact that we knew there was nothing we could do to change it.

*** * * * ***

I don't know how long we sat there like that, hours at least, but eventually Sam cried himself out and fell asleep, with his head on my chest and hand on my swollen belly.

As tired as I was before, there was no way I would be able to sleep now. Here I was snuggled up next to Sam. _Sam!_ I was so conflicted emotionally; I didn't know whether to be filled with joy or guilt over this situation. _Sam was wrapped around me!_

Emily's Sam was wrapped around me, snoring contentedly.

I stared at him and marveled once again at just how much I loved this man. I knew he would wake up soon, and I didn't know what would happen then, but it certainly wouldn't be this, so I continued to stare at him, determined not to miss one minute of my fleeting time with him.

Almost without thinking, my hand began to gently ruffle his hair and make lazy circles through it. His hair was so silky soft. I loved the feel of it through my fingers, and I snuggled in closer to him. This was heaven.

Suddenly every single nerve ending on my body was alive. I could feel Sam's stubbly chin rub against my neck.

_Sam was nuzzling me!_

My heart began to race and I froze. What was going on? Why the sudden change of attitude? Then all thoughts except those about Sam's lips flew out the window as he started to nibble on my ear. I was scared, but I didn't care. _Sam!_ His fingers wound their way through my hair and his hot breath worked its way down my neck and then slowly over to my jaw, and then lingered at the corner of my mouth.

Thus far I had just sat there not believing that this was happening, frozen in shock. Then he kissed me full on the lips and it was like throwing gasoline on a dying fire.

Suddenly we were frantically clinging to each other, kissing each other, and trying to be as close as my pregnant belly would allow. His hand slid up my spine and I shivered. Not in fear or chill, but in a totally new feeling for me; anticipation.

My finger's raked through Sam's hair and I pressed my face against his collarbone breathing in deeply. He smelled glorious!

"Sam." I breathed incoherently.

"Emily," he panted while fumbling with the buttons on my shirt.

I froze instantly, dying inside.

_Emily_.

I struggled not to cry; it wouldn't be fair to Sam if I did. But as I watched him fully wake up, the realization dawned in his eyes, and I felt him jerk his hands away - hands which had been so lovingly caressing me moments before. It was too much. A single traitorous tear slid down my check, and I fled to the bedroom, firmly locking the door behind me. That's when the tears really began to fall.

I sank to the floor next to the door and quietly sobbed.

How could I have been so stupid? Of course it wasn't me Sam was kissing! _It was his precious Emily_, I thought bitterly. Not the woman who had forsaken her own kind for him. Not the woman who was pregnant with his child. Not the alien invader who had taken away the person he loved more than anything else on this Earth, and then had the audacity to walk around in her body, a constant reminder to him of what he'd lost. My sobs increased, wracking my entire body.

_I am a monster!_

"Snow?" Sam called quietly, yet still startling me. He was just on the other side of the door!

"Snow, I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it… to force myself on you like that. I just – I just miss her so much Snow. I didn't know it was you, I promise, or I never would have – I'm sorry," he finished quietly.

I leaned against the door, no longer crying out loud, but my body was still shaking with convulsions. He'd just managed to rip out what little of my heart was left and stomp on it.

_He never would have if he'd known it was me_.

He thought I was crying because I felt attacked by him.

What a mess. What an awful, terrible mess.

Wiping my tears away, I composed myself, took a few deep breaths, shakily stood, and opened the door.

Emily's Sam was waiting.

"I guess we need to talk."

**

* * *

Chapter 8: Agreed**

"Can I get you a glass of lemonade?" I asked him over my shoulder while I pulled down two cups and filled them full of ice. I knew he'd want one. It was Sam's favorite drink.

"Uh, yes, thank you," he replied, sitting on one of the stools at the kitchen counter.

He didn't meet my eyes, which was fine because I wasn't meeting his. It was all so awkward.

How do you tell a man '_Hey, I'm sorry I inadvertently killed your wife, whom you loved more than anything in the world, and now I'm running around in her body with full access to all her memories, and your unborn child growing inside me. And by the way, I love you'_?

I made small talk instead.

"So, how long have you been in town?" I asked, placing the glass in front of him before leaning up against the counter. I kept my eyes fixed out the window. It seemed to be the only safe place to keep them.

I heard him take a sip of his lemonade and then clearing his throat, he answered. "Since this morning. I came straight here. I'm not sure what I hoped to find though."

Well, that pretty much ended that topic of conversation.

He took another sip. "This is really good."

"Thanks, I made it yesterday. Fresh squeezed, just like you like it."

"Yeah, Emily used to…" and when he trailed off I knew I had made a mistake. But I didn't see how we could continue to avoid talking about the elephant in the room. No matter what we talked about it would come back to Emily and the fact that she was gone. And that it was my fault.

"Sam, I'm sorry." I looked at him, when I said it, and wished I hadn't. His face was a frozen mask, and he was staring at his glass of lemonade, as if it were the most important thing in the world.

I reached out to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder and he flinched away. It felt like a slap in my face, but I didn't blame him. How could I?

"Ok, I won't touch you. I know that hurts you too much right now, but Sam we have to talk about Emily. And about the baby," I said as kindly as I could. I didn't want to do this any more than he did, but we had to talk about it.

That seemed to get a reaction out of him, and he nodded his head.

"The baby," he responded slowly, pronouncing each word carefully. "My baby. My baby with Emily. I should never have left. I'm so sorry. I just – I just didn't know how to think or how to feel. I still don't," he said, whispering that last bit.

I felt so cruel, like such a villain. At least I could give him some small bit of hope, as unlikely as it was. I bent down low to look him in the eyes and waited until he met my gaze so he would know how serious I was.

"Sam, I love this child. I love little Emily more than I love my own life, more than I love y- more than I love anyone else," I amended. He didn't need professions of my love right now. He needed assurance and hope.

"And I will do anything for her. Anything. And what's best for her is to be with her mother. I've already arranged it with Carlisle. After Little Em is born, Carlisle's going to extract me from Emily's body, and hopefully Emily will come back."

Sam's eyes widened with wild hope, and he gripped his glass so tightly that I was afraid it would shatter. I hurried on before his hope could grow too much.

"But you need to know that it's doubtful she will come back. We've only had one successful return, and that was because Edward heard two distinct voices in one head. He told me that he'd never heard Emily in my mind. And I've never heard her either," I said as gently as I could.

Sam's shoulders sagged again, and he looked like the wind had been sucked out of his sails.

"There is still a chance though. A small one, so don't lose hope. She could still come back."

I reached across the counter and slid my hand over his. This time he didn't jerk away, and instead gripped it tightly with his own.

After a few moments he looked up at me and asked, "Wait, you said the baby is a girl?"

"Yes."

"And you named her Emily?"

"Yes."

"Why?" The confusion was clear in his dark brown eyes.

How could I make him understand? That in gaining all of Emily's memories and learning about who she was, I loved her. She had been a beautiful, vivacious, caring, wonderful person. The world was a dimmer place without her essence.

"Because I love her too," I said simply, and picked up his glass to put it in the sink. As I was walking across to the sink he spoke again.

"I know what you've done for everyone here. What you are still doing. That you've forsaken your own kind to help us. Why?"

I froze. I could not look at him because he would see the answer written plainly in my eyes.

_Because I love you!_

"Because it was the right thing to do. And it still is," I said instead, while rinsing out the glass and setting it to dry on a towel.

Sam was quiet for a while and I stared out the window again, not wanting to rush him.

"Snow?" he asked tentatively a few moments later.

"Yes Sam?"

"Would it be OK if I stayed here for the next few months until Little Em comes? I'd like to get to know her some. And you too if that's ok. I'll stay on the couch of course," he finished in a rush.

My heart was pounding against my ribcage so loudly I was certain every Vampire in LaPush could hear it.

"It's your house Sam. Do as you please. But I think that would be fine. Though I'll stay on the couch. You take your bedroom back." I said this all as nonchalantly as I could, though I was nearly shaking. _Sam would be here every day! I would get to see him every day!_

"Don't be silly." He stood up and walked towards me. "You're pregnant! You'll be sleeping in the bed in the bedroom. I'll sleep on the couch." His tone broached no argument, though arguing with him was the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.

He was, once again, standing right in front of me, and we were mere inches apart. I could feel his sweet breath against my hair, and my skin tingled being so close to him. I wanted to touch him so badly.

Suddenly my stomach jerked, and my hand flew to it. "Oh!" I yelped. "I guess Little Em must know her daddy's back," I said smiling up at Sam.

Sam stared at my belly, hand half extended out towards me, but frozen in the act, as if he were afraid to touch me.

I knew what he wanted, and it was fine, because it's what I wanted, and little Emily wanted too. "It's ok, Sam. Come say hello to your daughter."

Sam saw the reassurance in my eyes, and so, slowly, hesitatingly he kneeled, extended a hand and placed it gently on my belly. Emily kicked almost immediately and I saw him smile, his first true smile since the first time I saw him. Leaning towards me, he placed his face against my belly next to his hand, and greeted his daughter.

"Hi baby. Sorry I was gone for so long. I promise Daddy's not going away ever again."

Then, so quietly that I could hardly hear him, he whispered. "I love you."

**

* * *

Chapter 9: Routine**

_6__ weeks later_

Just the sizzle of the ground beef browning in the frying pan was enough to make me sick, but I fought it and kept cooking. The pack would be here soon, and I still needed to make these sloppy joes. Goodness knows they always showed up with an appetite.

"Can you pass me the chopped onions?" I asked Sam while I stirred the meat with a spatula.

"Here you go." He extended a tupperware bowl with the onions towards me while I reached my hand out to it. I wasn't looking and he wasn't looking, and the next thing I knew onions were all over the floor next to the dropped bowl. We both bent over to pick up the bowl, and cracked heads hard on the way down.

"Ow! Sorry!"

What I was thinking trying to bend over to do _anything_ in my condition, I don't know. Sam, obviously unhurt, was instantly by my side, with an arm around me and another hand lifting my chin up so he could look into my eyes.

"Are you ok? Did I hurt you?" he asked all tenderness and love.

Our eyes locked, and for a moment the world stopped moving.

Then I shivered and looked away.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking. Do we have another onion?"

Sam shook his head as if to clear it, and then stepped back to a safe distance. Away from me.

"No. I'll run to the store and get another."

And then he was gone in the blink of an eye, with the crunch of gravel under the car's tires being the only indication of his departure.

Sighing, I swept the onions to the side of the trash can. I definitely couldn't bend over to pick them up with a dust pan, so they'd have to stay there for now. I hurried back to the frying pan so I wouldn't burn the beef, and sighed again. The last few weeks had been long and awkward to say the least.

Oh, Sam had been a perfect gentlemen, never acting inappropriately, always doing things for me, helping around the house, and basically getting ready for the baby's arrival. We got along fantastically. I already knew his habits, and he seemed to be adjusting to my presence just fine. Too fine.

The problem was it seemed like our bodies were two magnets, and it never failed that if we got in close of proximity to each other we were somehow touching or embracing momentarily before one of us would come to our senses and jerk away. Then there was the inevitable embarrassment following each episode where we felt like we had to tip-toe around each other.

I for one, was tired of fighting the clear attraction that we had for each other; I didn't _want_ to fight it any longer.

I loved Sam. I wanted Sam. And sometimes, when I caught him staring at me, I thought that maybe, just maybe, he wanted me back.

I didn't know if I just wished it, or if it was real what I thought I saw in his eyes at times, but either way I knew he'd never act on it. He was too noble, too honorable. And most likely, still too in love with Emily. And wouldn't falling for his wife's murderer be the ultimate act of betrayal? Did I even have the right to ask for any of this? To want it?

In some ways I was glad I only had a couple of weeks left before little Emily was born. I didn't think I could stand this torture for much longer. But at the same time, the very thought of leaving clamped a vise around my chest and made it hard for me to breath.

It was such an impossible situation.

"Hello?! I smell SLOPPY JOES!" I heard Seth call out as he banged open the front door.

"I'm in the kitchen and you'll have to wait until they're done!"

I heard several more of the younger pack members tromp in behind him nosily, and I smiled. At least some things hadn't changed. The pack still came over to get fed.

"Snow!" Seth and Quill called out to me as they rounded the corner into the small kitchen. As big as those boys were, the room was suddenly very crowded.

"Hello boys. Like I said, food's not done yet. Sam had to get some onions."

"But I'm hungry now," Quill whined and tried to sneak a hand towards some potato chips on the counter. I playfully slapped his hand away and shook an admonishing finger at both of them.

"Behave or go to the living room and watch T.V. with the rest of them."

"Fine," They said in unison, and leaned up against the counter with their arms crossed against their enormous chests. Seriously, I had no idea how LaPush bred them so big!

I turned back to the task of making the sloppy joes and asked over my shoulder, "So, how's Bryan adjusting. Has he finally calmed down some?" Bryan still freaked out whenever he saw me so I really had no way of knowing if he was doing ok or not.

I heard the potato chip bag open, and shook my head in resignation. _Boys._

"Oh yeah," Seth said around a mouthful of chips, "he's doing great, actually. He's supposed to be staying with us, but really, he spends most of his time at the Cullens', which is fine with everyone, since he's pretty much the only person we know who has the ability or the desire to stay up all night playing video games with Emmett. I don't think Rosalie likes him much, but then she doesn't like anyone, so no surprises there."

I chuckled at that because it was so true. "Well, he must sleep at some point. He's not a Vampire… Is he?" I asked half serious.

Quill and Seth started laughing, choking on the chips, and going into coughing fits.

"Don't make us laugh!" Quill gasped, trying to get a breath.

"Don't steal my chips," I retorted, plucking the bag out of his hands and pointing out of the kitchen. Sticking his tongue out at me, Quill marched out of the kitchen and joined the rest of the pack roughhousing in the dining room.

"No, he's not a Vampire. He's just your typical socially awkward young male adult who stays up all night playing video games, and then sleeps all day," Seth answered. I noticed the chips had made their way back into his hands. I shook my head at him, held out my hand, and pointed out the door. Sticking his tongue out at me just as Quill did, he tossed the mostly empty bag of chips towards me and started walking towards the living room.

As was typical lately, I clumsily dropped the bag of chips and, without thinking, bent over to pick them up. Halfway down I froze as I felt something _shift_ inside, and suddenly the world began to spin causing me to feel dizzy.

"Uh Snow? Snow are you ok?" I felt Seth's strong hands grasp my upper arms to kept me steady.

"Hey Snow? You're leaking. Did you know you're leaking?" His voice sounded like it was obscured by a fog.

"Hey guys?" I heard Seth call out. "Get Sam! I think the baby's coming!"

**

* * *

Chapter 10: Mother**

The next thing I knew it was like a 3-ring circus in the house. People and wolves were flying back and forth, in and out of rooms. Bags were being packed, and I noticed Leah racing out the front door, probably to warn Carlisle. It was a flurry of motion, a storm that I was the eye of.

_This was wrong!_ Little Em wasn't due for at least another 2 weeks. I wasn't ready to leave yet!

Suddenly I was in Sam's arms, being swept out to the car. The thirty minute drive to the clinic was over in no time. _I'm not ready!_ I was panicking. This wasn't fair! I still had two weeks left!

Esme met us at the car, and in a flash she scooped me up and carried me quickly into the operating room. Today it would double as a delivery room. It really was a small clinic, and pretty much all the rooms served multiple purposes.

Carlisle was suddenly there by my side examining me.

"You're already dilated ten centimeters! I'm surprised you didn't have the baby in the car!"

_Too fast!_ It was all happening too early and too fast!

The cramps I had been feeling earlier that day were suddenly nothing compared to what I was feeling now. I shrieked in pain, but was instantly embarrassed by my outburst. Sam was gripping my hand and I didn't want him to worry.

It happened again and again, and all the while Sam held my hand as I screamed and pushed. I thought it would never end. Nothing could be as painful as this. _Nothing!_

Carlisle was excited. He could see the crown, then the head, then the shoulders, and then, there she was, my little Em, bright purple, covered in after birth, and a head full of short black hair.

_She was beautiful._

And then I heard the most wonderful sound any mother will ever hear – Emily opened her mouth and let out a huge wail.

Esme quickly cleaned her up and then handed Little Em to Sam who stared at his daughter with wonder, and I stared at the two of them, with longing aching away in my heart.

Sam looked up, met my eyes, and gave me a quiet smile before gingerly passing Little Em over to me, and then very sweetly kissed me on my forehead.

"Good job," he murmured.

I was, of course, completely and utterly overwhelmed, amazed, and in love with this perfect little person. I never knew that I could love someone so much. What I felt for Sam paled in comparison to this.

I was a Mother and this little girl was my entire life now. _This must be what imprinting feels like, _I mused.

And then I started to cry because I knew that it was time to go. Time to give the real Emily a chance to come back.

I kissed our baby, the child the three of us shared, one last time and held her gently out to Sam, who took her with a resigned look on his face.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. It's the only way I can continue on. I couldn't live knowing that she could possibly be somewhere trapped in our head."

He saw the determination in my eyes, and then completely surprised me by bending over and kissing me fully on the mouth. If that was supposed to make this easier on me he was wrong. It was all I could do to stop myself from throwing my arms around him. I heard him silently murmur "thank you" and then he was gone.

I was wrong about nothing being more painful than the labor pains. This was a million times worse. I felt like I was dying from a thousand tiny cuts; like I was being drowned one drop at a time; like all the air in the world had left with Sam and Little Em and I was suffocating.

I tried not to cry, but wasn't very successful.

Carlisle had silently watched the entire exchange from the corner of the room. He was so quiet I'd forgotten he was even there. I hadn't even heard Esme leave the room.

"Snow," he began gently, sitting down next to me at the foot of the bed. "Have you given any thought to my proposal?"

I tried not to meet his eyes. I knew what he meant, and I didn't want to think about it because I didn't know what I wished for. He wanted to place me in another host in the unlikely event that Emily did come back. I wanted Emily to come back desperately, if only for Sam's sake, but I also selfishly wanted to stay.

He was still waiting for an answer, so I quietly began, "I have. And I think… well, I think that I would rather just go back to the bears after this, because I don't know if I could handle being here… after. Everything would just be too complicated. Too impossible. I don't think I could do it. I don't think I'm cut out for these human emotions."

Then he decided to play mean. He knew that I would do anything they asked of me. He knew I loved them all too much.

"We could still use your help Snow. It will be wonderful to have Emily back – if she's even still there – but she can't help us the way you can. We need you. Sam needs you. Little Em needs you."

I bowed my head and felt the tears pricking my eyes. He wasn't playing fair. I knew it hurt him to do this to me, and that he must truly believe it.

"I will stay if you think you really need me. Though it's not what I would choose for myself."

I felt his cold hands lift my chin gently and he forced me to look into his dazzling amber eyes.

"Hey, it's not just that we _need_ you around, we _want_ you around. You're family now, and none of us want you to go. Also, it's been nice to have a friend and a colleague."

I could feel the tears about to spill over, but before they could he pulled me into an icy hug.

"It will be ok Snow; it will be ok."

And then I was asleep.

**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Reborn**

The first thing I noticed was that someone was holding my hand in both of theirs, and it was very warm.

Werewolf warm.

And almost immediately I came to two realizations. The first one being that I was still in Emily's body, and the second one was that the hands belonged to Sam.

I wasn't sure which was more surprising, and I didn't know if I was happy or sad. Both really. But mostly I was scared. Scared of opening my eyes and seeing that it was all a dream.

"Please come back, Snow," he whispered, sounding for all the world like a man resigned to losing everything.

Then it hit me; he'd just asked for _me_ and not Emily!

What did this mean? Did Emily not come back after the extraction? Did that mean I got to stay? Did Sam not hate me anymore? My baby! How was little Em?

I had so many questions, and I was still too afraid to open my eyes.

"Please…" he pleaded again, gently squeezing my hand. I couldn't refuse him anything really, though that was pretty obvious to everyone at this point. My eyes fluttered open and I turned my face to look at him, attempting to smile.

"Hey there," I croaked. Wow, I must have been gone for a long time. I felt very weak and my throat was parched.

"You're awake!" Sam exclaimed, relief visible in his features. "I thought I'd lost you too. I don't think I could handle losing you both… Losing Emily completely," he finished, clearly confused and also a bit embarrassed.

I didn't know if I was pleased or wounded by his words. It seemed that a part of him did miss me, and perhaps even cared for me, but of course the largest part, the part of him that was imprinted on this body, was glad Emily wasn't completely gone.

Given how impossible our situation was I didn't think I could really ask for better, and this was much more than I'd ever believed possible.

Well, if this was how things were going to be, then I would take it. I could make it work. Maybe in time… _No!_ I didn't need to think things like that. Either I wanted to be with Sam the way things were right now, or I didn't want to be with him at all.

Even the thought of leaving him pained me. So I suppose my decision was made.

I placed my free hand gently on his cheek, and he leaned into it while he closed his eyes.

"I missed you too," I whispered, though to me I'd only been gone for a few moments.

We sat there quietly for a moment just basking in being reunited. No Humans, No Vampires, no Werewolves, no Souls, no conflict; just two bodies that needed to be together.

Then he did something I never thought he would do. Opening his eyes, he stared intently into mine, and then leaned slowly forward, all the while giving me every opportunity to stop him.

My heart raced and my mind debated with itself as he got closer and closer. I wanted this, I knew I wanted this… but I was uncertain that Sam did. Or perhaps he just wanted to kiss Emily's body. Would I be ok with that? My pride wanted him to kiss _me_. My hormones, on the other hand, just wanted to be kissed.

My hormones won out.

Sam's lips feathered gently across my forehead, and then my eyes, working their way down to my cheek, and eventually along my jaw line until they paused at the corner of my mouth, just like the first time he'd mistakenly kissed me.

I was nearly quivering at this point, but I was afraid to move lest I ruin the moment.

His lips touched mine carefully, tentatively, as if it was our first kiss, and in some ways it was. For the first time he was kissing _me._

And that was when I lost my self control.

I wrapped my arms around him and tangled my fingers into his hair as I pulled him close to me. He responded in kind, and the fire blazed.

*** * * * ***

As I lay there nestled against Sam's shoulder, my head was still spinning. I was so confused. He leaned over to kiss the top of my head, his warm fingers caressing my arms.

"Sam?"

"Yes, Snow?"

"I'm confused."

"So am I."

"So what will we do?"

"This."

It seemed like as good a plan as any.


	4. Book Three: Ian

_**7 years later**_

**Book Three**

**Ian**

"_Love is everything it's cracked up to be…It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for." _**- Erica Jong**

**

* * *

Chapter One: Well I sure didn't see that coming.**

"I never took you for a nail-biter O'Shea," Jared teased.

I jerked my fingers out of my mouth and frowned sourly at him. It was a recent habit, one I'd picked up only since Wanda had started going out on these "missions" of hers the last few months. Jeb was so certain that she was perfectly safe, but I completely disagreed.

How could she be? She was so tiny and frail looking… she was such an easy target for the Souls. Logically, I knew that the Souls were all supposedly kind hearted, with no malice or violence (my Wanda being a prime example of that)… but then there were the Seekers. Or more to the point, there had been Wanda's Seeker. What a piece of work that one was.

But before I could dwell on that further, my thoughts were interrupted once more by Jared.

"Seriously Mel, look at him! I don't even think he knows he does it. He's chewing away at them again. Who knew he was such a worrier?" Jared joked again, obviously trying to lighten the dark mood in the van.

"I did," Melanie said without thinking, and when I looked up to meet her eyes, she blinked and quickly looked away, clearly furious that I'd made her blush.

I didn't like it any more than she did.

Things were still weird.

Occasionally I'd reach for Mel's hand instead of Wanda's, and sometimes I caught Wanda staring at Jared or Mel staring at me. Of course whichever of the three of us it happened to was instantly embarrassed. It seemed the only person not really affected was Jared.

He'd always loved Melanie and didn't have to worry about transferring his affection to a new body like I did. No, I didn't love Mel's body, but since her face was Wanda's first face, obviously I subconsciously associated her with my beloved.

Thankfully Melanie and Wanda both had very different facial expressions, and Wanda's had gone with her to her new body. I'd know her smile no matter who her host was. Wanda and Mel also had to contend with the residual effects of sharing a mind and loving different men, so obviously, they still experienced echoes of feelings from the other person in their minds.

Like I said, it was weird.

"Shut up you guys! Are you trying to get us caught?" Kyle hissed from his place by the van's rear door. After glaring at the three of us in turn, he promptly turned back to stare out of the small crack in the slightly open door. He was not worried for my Wanda, however. Though they'd made their peace since he'd tried to _kill her_ and she in turn _saved his life;_ he was, of course, worried sick about Sunny, who was on her very first Mission, shopping for essentials with Wanda.

I leaned back against the van wall and sighed. A trickle of sweat rolled down my face, and I took a deep, stuffy breath. Talk about weird situations, Jared, Melanie, Wanda, and I had nothing on Kyle and Sunny.

Kyle, who thought the only good Soul was one squished under his boot, was ironically tied to one now. His Jodi was taken by the Souls early on, and when he went to "rescue" her a few months back, Sunny was in her body.

It turned out that Sunny was apparently head over heels in love with Kyle (don't ask me _why_ or _how_). So when Kyle showed up, she went with him willingly. She even let Doc take her out of Jodi's head. Poor Jodi never came back, and Kyle couldn't bear to let her body die, so they put Sunny back in. Sunny was thrilled to be back and with Kyle again, and he was… well, he just was Kyle.

It was an impossible situation, and surprisingly Kyle acted better about the whole thing than Jared did when Wanda showed up in Melanie's body. _Though my Wanderer did pave the way for that_, I thought with a grimace. I hated remembering the way we'd all treated Wanda when she first arrived.

It's true we were all scared, but we acted like savages. No wonder the Souls thought we were monsters.

I glanced at my watch, and forced myself not to bite my nails in worry again. Kyle shifted quietly, but kept peering resolutely outside. I was starting to suspect Kyle of having feelings for Sunny, more than just as a caretaker. Wanda was certain he did, but I wasn't quite sure he was fully there yet. Personally, I thought he was still confused and not sure of his own feelings on the matter.

Kyle had balked when Wanda suggested that Sunny go on the next supply mission. He had gone on and on saying that she couldn't be trusted, that she'd turn them over to the Seekers. Jeb had butted in at that point saying simply "Sounds to me like you just can't bear to see anything happen to Sunny. Sounds to me like maybe you care about that Soul." That had shut Kyle up, and he'd spun on his heel and marched out.

Wanda told me later that she'd overheard Kyle pleading with Sunny not to go, that he wouldn't be able to stand it if she got hurt, or that maybe once she left the caves she wouldn't want to come back. Sunny had burst into tears and swore to Kyle that she'd never leave him, but that she was needed. Wanda couldn't do all the missions after all.

Kyle was an idiot.

It was so clear that Sunny thought the world revolved around him and that she'd never willingly leave him (I still have no idea why, and I was his _brother_!), so I don't know what he was worried about. But, here we were, with Wanda teaching Sunny how to lie, how to pretend, how to help the _savage humans_ survive.

Jared had come along to make sure Kyle didn't do anything stupid. Mel had naturally come along to be with Jared (they were inseparable), and there was no way I'd ever let Wanda go on one of these things alone. So here we all were, one big happy, albeit weird, family, sweating in the back of a muggy van, in the parking lot of a Seattle suburb's grocery store.

Just then I heard the most beautiful thing ever: Wanda's clear, bell-like voice. So different from Melanie's, and so very _Wanda_. I recognized her the very first time she spoke with her new voice. You could hear her love and affection for all things living anytime she spoke, no matter what voice she used.

She was perfect.

Wanda and Sunny were giggling over something, pushing a large cart full of groceries to the van. Kyle was visibly relaxing at the sound of Sunny's voice. Yup, definitely developing feelings for her.

The girls reached the back of the van and opened the door. Sunlight streamed in, momentarily blinding us, but when my eyes adjusted I saw Wanda and my heart leapt into my throat; I smiled like an idiot. She was so beautiful, and with the sun back lighting her and her soft golden curls making a beautiful halo around her head, she looked just like an angel. Her eyes glittered and sparkled like a thousand tiny diamonds and when she smiled back at me I nearly forgot to breath. She was the most perfect thing in this galaxy and I loved her more than anything else.

My wonderful Wanderer.

Suddenly there was a loud thud on the roof of the van. We all looked up in unison to see what looked like the shape of two feet in stilettos deforming the metal. I was instantly moving, going to protect Wanda, but whatever was up there was faster.

"NOOOOOOO!" I yelled as she and Sunny were unceremoniously yanked away by a glittering blur of motion, and the van door was slammed closed in our faces. Kyle howled and yanked on the door but to no avail.

The largest man I'd ever seen (he even made Kyle look small) climbed into the driver's seat, turned to look at us with his oddly gold colored eyes, smiled and said, "Well folks, this is your lucky day! Rose and I are here to rescue you from the scary space invaders."

Then chuckling at some joke I certainly didn't get, he promptly sprayed us with SLEEP before any of us could say anything. As I was falling asleep I couldn't help but notice how the sunlight streaming in the window made his hand sparkle just like Wanda's eyes. Then the blackness took me.

**

* * *

Chapter Two: If we are prisoners, then these guys are rotten jailers.**

"Ian, wake up."

"Wanda?" I mumbled.

"No Ian, come on, wake UP! We don't have time for this!"

I felt Melanie's familiar hand roughly shaking me as I groggily sat up. My eyelids felt like they were made of lead, and my brain was fuzzy. I hated SLEEP. It always left me like this. Doc said it was all in my head, that there shouldn't be any side effects, but for me there always was.

SLEEP! We'd been attacked and sprayed with SLEEP! Wanda and Sunny had been taken!

I was instantly alert and looking around the room, trying to get my bearings. It appeared that we were inside of a simple doctor's examination room; the same generic, white room you'd have found in any hospital five years ago, back before we even knew we were slowly being taken over. The fact that we were in one now was terrifying. Only Souls lived out in the open like this, so this room could only mean one thing, we were being held for implantation.

Kyle and Jared were both still sleeping, propped up against each other in a couple of chairs in the corner of the room. Kyle's head firmly rested on Jared's shoulder; Jared in turn was drooling on Kyle's head. If our situation hadn't been so dire I would have burst out laughing.

Melanie followed my gaze and smiled despite everything. "Yeah, I tried to wake them up first, but they both looked so precious and sweet, I didn't want to ruin it."

At my questioning eyebrow, she continued. "Ok, so seriously, I tried to wake up Jared first, but he simply wouldn't wake up. The way I figure it, he and Kyle got a face full of SLEEP. Jared threw himself in front of me, and I vaguely remember Kyle launching himself at that huge guy who sprayed us, so I think you and I only got a partial dose. That means whoever captured us probably isn't expecting us to be awake yet."

"I think you're right. So the real question is why did they take us? We're both still human, and usually the Souls don't wait around for an implantation. Plus, do you remember what Wanda's Seeker said? Adult humans aren't being used for implantation anymore. We all look pretty alive to me."

"I have no idea," Melanie answered. "I do know that the big guy said something about rescuing us from the Space Invaders? So they obviously know about the Souls. Though who wouldn't at this point? Also, totally random, but is it just me or did that big guy's skin sparkle in the sunlight?"

"You saw that too? I thought I was imagining things."

"Yeah," she confirmed. "I saw it. I think his accomplice was the same way. I didn't see much, but there was a lot of glittering in the sun for the half a second I did see her."

"Her?" I asked in confusion. "You just said you didn't really see anything."

"Well I don't see any guy, no matter what species they are, leaving stiletto prints on the roof of a car. I'm just sayin'…"

"Good point," I said walking towards the door. "So, you think they're from around here? And by here I mean Earth, of course."

"On no, definitely not human. Or at least, not fully human," Mel answered.

I was at the door by now, and realizing how futile it was, but opting to try anyway, gripped the doorknob in my hand and turned.

_It was open!_

"Ok… I didn't see that coming. Are we prisoners or not?" Melanie asked.

"I don't know and I'm not going to hang around to ask. I'm going to find Wanda. If these guys thought they were rescuing us from the Souls, then that means they think Souls are dangerous, which means Wanda's in trouble."

"But wait, we can't just leave Jared and Kyle!"

"They aren't in any danger that I can see," I hissed. "Who knows what they've done to Wanda and Sunny by now! We don't have time to waste!"

Mel was clearly torn and looked between Jared and the door a few times, before resignedly walking over to the doctor's desk and jotting a quick note explaining the situation and telling him not to worry or come after her, that she was perfectly safe.

"Right," I snorted. "Like that will stop him from freaking out." Melanie pointedly ignored me.

"OK, let's go," Melanie said after placing the note in Jared's lap.

We crept out the door and down the hall, expecting at any moment to be discovered. Fortuitously the hallway remained empty and quiet. We made it down a few doors towards a sign brightly lit "EXIT" and paused outside an open doorway leading to a waiting room. Yeah, we were obviously in a medical clinic of some sort.

Inside the room we saw a couple of young looking Native American men, and dang were they tall! I was about to motion to Melanie to turn around and go back the other way when one of them spoke up.

"Hey Embry, I thought you were supposed to go on this last raid with Emmett?"

"Yeah, I was, but ol' blondie still doesn't like Weres so much. It's a shame too. I would have loved to be a part of the rescue," Embry responded.

"Sure sure, the Vamps really needed you too, because the glow worms - they soooo dangerous you know."

They both started laughing at that, and Melanie and I exchanged a confused glance. Vamps? Weres? What? And they knew about Souls?

Before we could think too much on that an enormous wolf bounded into the room, and I could see that Melanie was about to warn them. The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end, and something about what they were saying clicked into place.

"No wait," I whispered, laying my hand on her arm. She stared at me in confusion, but no explanation was necessary. Just as I suspected, and straight from an old horror film, the wolf changed into a naked man. The other two in the room both turned to greet the new arrival, the werewolf apparently named "Seth."

"Hey guys, what's the news? I heard the sparklepires found a bunch of humans."

"Yup, Emmett put them down for a nap in one of the exam rooms. Blondie took the glow worms to the OR. Snow and Nessie are about to do the extraction."

**

* * *

Chapter Three: Just when I thought things weren't bad enough…**

"What the heck was that thing?" Melanie hissed at me, while we worked our way back up the hallway looking for the Operating Room.

"I thought that was fairly obvious Mel," I snapped, and then immediately felt guilty. My panic and fear for Wanda didn't give me permission to be mean to Melanie. "Sorry."

"Hey, I'm scared for her too," Melanie said, with an understanding look.

We reached a set of double doors, and after pausing a minute to listen for sounds pushed ourselves in. We were in a darkened room with a sink (obviously for a doctor to wash up prior to doing any sort of cutting), and a large window showing a brightly lit room on the other side of it. On two beds were Wanda and Sunny.

I was about to run into the room to grab Wanda, when this time it was Melanie who laid a restraining hand on my arm whispering, "No wait!"

Two women walked into the room from an opposite door, both of them fully grown, though one of them looked to be barely older than 18 or so. She had copper colored hair that hung in loose curls down her back and her skin was pearly white; almost unnaturally white.

I watched her reach over and place her hand on the other woman's cheek. It seemed like such an odd gesture, but the other woman, a beautiful Native American with long, straight, black hair, nodded her head in understanding and made some sort of comment to the younger woman. The older woman (she appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties) was wearing a doctor's coat and began gesturing at Wanda.

These two must be Snow and Nessie, the two people the young men and the wolf person had been talking about. As if to confirm my suspicion, the young woman rolled Wanda onto her side effortlessly as if she weighed no more than a feather, while the doctor pulled out a scalpel.

At this point I wasn't thinking too coherently. I just wanted to get to Wanda. I needed to get that scalpel out of the doctor's hand.

I'd intended to tackle her and rip the scalpel from her hand.

I'd intended to, but instead found myself flying across the room and hitting the wall with a loud crack. I was dazed and confused, but was able to see the inhumanly strong and fast girl put Mel in a head lock. The Native American woman had backed into a corner directly behind Wanda and almost appeared to be cowering in fear. Of us? Well, I didn't care what she was afraid of (maybe that freaky cheek touching girl), I was going to get Wanda and run for it.

I was back on my feet now, when another large Native American man (different from the other three; he was older, more experienced looking) walked into the room. The smile on his face that he had directed at the cowering woman froze as he took in the entire situation, and suddenly fragments of clothing were raining down to the floor and I was knocked to the floor by the largest wolf I'd ever seen.

Face to face with the growling wolf, I could feel his hot, putrid breath on my skin, and watched as a string of drool dropped slowly down towards me. I was pretty sure I was going to die, but I didn't care, so long as Wanda was ok.

I don't know how long we were like that; seconds - hours - eternity?

The standoff was broken when two more men entered the room, another doctor by the looks of his lab coat, and from the new rain shower of fabric bits and pieces, and the sudden appearance of another growling wolf by the young woman's side (who still had Melanie in a headlock), another Werewolf.

"Nessie, would you mind loosening your hold on the young lady? She is turning purple," the pale doctor calmly asked.

The girl made a face, and I heard her mumble "Yes, Grandpa," and then she reluctantly loosened her hold, but didn't let go of Mel - _wait did she just call him Grandpa? _She was at least sixteen years old, if not eighteen, and the other doctor could not have been a day over thirty.

Definitely not human.

"And Jacob, phasing was hardly necessary," the doctor continued. "Snow, what's going on?" he asked addressing the other woman, the one in the doctor's coat cowering in the corner. I quickly averted my eyes from her because the wolf standing on me deepened his growl and pressed down harder on my chest with his paw.

The woman named Snow stood up and addressed the pale skinned man. "Renesme was helping me prepare the patients for extraction when these two burst in yelling to stop. I honestly don't think there was any intention to hurt us. I think they just wanted us to stop the procedure," the woman named Snow finished, confusion clear in her voice. As she turned to look at me, the light hit her reflective eyes and both Melanie and I were visibly stunned.

This woman was a Soul. And she was working with the, um, well, with people who weren't Souls; I was fairly certain that there weren't any other humans in the room but Mel and I at the moment.

"Of course we aren't here to hurt you," Melanie gasped around Nessie's impossibly strong arm. "We came to stop you from murdering our friends!"

I was nearly mad with worry for Wanda by this point and enormous wolf or not I started to strain against the platter-sized paws that pinned me to the ground.

"Please! Is she alright?" I wheezed, reaching ineffectively towards Wanda's bed.

The wolf started to press harder, making it impossible for further speech, when suddenly he glanced behind him to the other wolf. They seemed to exchange some sort of silent communication (perhaps a sort of telepathy), and then he immediately leapt off of me and went to Snow's side, clearly placing himself between her and I.

I waited about a half-second before I rushed to Wanda, grasped her hand in mine and checked to see if she was ok. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Melanie doing the same with Sunny.

The blonde man who had interrupted the fight walked towards me, extended a hand and said, "Hello, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I think we're all on the same side here, so we should probably talk."

I noted his curious golden eyes; not Soul, but definitely not human. I thought about all that I had witnessed today and hesitantly took the proffered hand, trying not to wince at the shocking, icy coolness of it.

"Yeah, you aren't kidding," I said wryly.

**

* * *

Chapter Four: Aliens, Vampires, and Werewolves, OH MY!**

It was like a really weird cocktail party in the waiting room of the LaPush Medical Clinic. All of the leadership from this isolated community were gathered here and everyone was mingling around, getting acquainted. There were the Cullens, who I was guessing where the "Vamps," all easily identified by their pale complexions, golden eyes, and icy touch.

The big guy and "Blondie" were among them, though they seemed to be keeping off to the side chatting with two others of their unusual family. One of them, a tiny dark-haired, pixie-like girl was standing as far away from the werewolves as she could manage, and kept occasionally staring off into space with her eyes glazed over. I'm not gonna lie; it was creepy. Though, go figure, meeting real life werewolves and vampires would naturally be creepy, wouldn't it?

Then there was Renesme, who was warm to the touch and snuggling on a sofa with Jacob (apparently the leader of the weres). She was an enigma, definitely not human, but also not one of the vamps. Though speaking of vamps, I noticed that one of them - who appeared to be the same age as Renesme - was glaring daggers at Jacob who had just then planted a quick kiss on her lips. This boy was obviously related, and had the same coppery colored hair Nessie did. Over-protective twin brother perhaps?

Snow and the huge werewolf who attacked me earlier approached, and I protectively slipped Wanda behind me. I wasn't taking any risks with this bunch.

Snow paused, frowned, and made as if to say something but was cut off by the man with her. "I'm sorry for attacking you like that. I'm just very protective of my wife, and I thought you were trying to hurt her." Gesturing at Wanda peeking out from behind me, he continued, "I'm sure you understand." He then flashed me a chagrined smile while he stuck out his hand. "I'm Sam, and this is my wife Snow Falling on Ice Castles, though we all call her Snow."

That broke the ice; no one could ignore our similar bizarre situations, so taking his firm grip in mine, I returned the introduction. "I'm Ian, and this Wanderer, though we call her Wanda."

Snow seemed to perk up at Wanda's introduction and looked directly at her. "Wanderer, were you a Bear?"

"Yes. I've lived many different lives and worlds. It's how I got my name. When I was a bear I was known as Lives in the Stars." Though this was all said cautiously, and with a bit of apprehension on Wanda's part.

"I knew it! You're Rides the Beast!" Snow squealed excitedly, and turned to Sam. "She is legendary among the Bears!"

Wanda's face turned beet red in embarrassment, and I could tell she wanted to hide behind me for the rest of the night. I gently pushed her towards Snow, and laughing said, "Why don't you two go find Sunny and have a little Bear reunion."

Sam stayed behind with me, and we made some awkward small talk until we were joined by Jared and Melanie.

"Weird, isn't it?" Jared asked.

"Yup, who would have thought there was such thing as vampires and werewolves?" I returned. "Though five years ago, who would have believed in Aliens?"

Sam made some sort of comment that "Bryan would" under his breath and chuckled to himself.

"Jeb's going to be pissed he missed this," Kyle remarked as he joined us.

We all laughed at that because it was so true. If Jeb had been here he would have been asking questions non-stop. Dr. Cullen had explained the entire werewolf/vampire/La Push thing and their quest to save humanity to us all earlier.

We were obviously a bit weirded out by it all, though of course we believed him immediately. Especially the vampire/werewolf thing. Next to body snatching invaders from outer space, who wouldn't?

Both of our groups also clearly realized that neither of our situations was especially ideal. We could be discovered at any moment, and while vamps and weres were apparently immune to being implanted (vamps because you couldn't cut their skin, and even if you could, well, they were dead. And weres because they healed too fast to do an implantation), human's certainly weren't immune. I just didn't know what else we could do.

Right then, a young girl around seven years old came in dragging a little toddler boy behind her. Based on their appearance, there was no question who they belonged to. When they stopped in front of Sam my suspicions were confirmed, and I watched as he excused himself, lifted the little boy onto his shoulders, and walked over to Snow who was giggling with Wanda and Sunny over some shared memory they had. Her face lit up when she saw her children, and she bent down to hear something that her daughter was trying to tell her.

Her _h__uman_ children.

At some point Melanie had moved up next to me without me realizing it, I was so focused on the picture before me.

"It's like what we saw in the playground on that first mission, back when Wanda and I were still joined. Children truly will be the key to humanity's salvation; no Soul mother will ever allow her Human child to implanted. That would be murder to her. And no Soul would ever force her to do it. Mothers are sacred among the Souls," she mused.

I nodded my head in agreement, my mind ablaze in half-formed thoughts and ideas, coming almost too fast for me to process. Suddenly the tiny pixie-like Cullen - Alice, I thought her name was - danced up to me.

"It will work!" she proclaimed loudly.

All conversation ceased in the room, and all eyes turned expectantly towards her. Well, all except for one pair. The sullen-looking copper-haired boy was staring intently at me. Yeah, it was just as creepy as it sounds.

"What will work?" Jacob called from the other side of the room, clearly confused and annoyed at being left in the dark. I got the feeling he had a love/hate relationship with the Cullens, and I could see why. They were definitely an odd bunch, and seemed to know what I was thinking even before I fully knew it.

"Negotiating with the Souls for an end to the invasion, of course," said the boy who was staring at me.

You could have heard a pin drop.

**

* * *

Chapter Five: A plan I could get behind.**

The sun was filtering in through the window of the one of the Cullen's bedrooms, and I felt Wanda bury herself closer to me, still sleeping peacefully. The warmth of sunlight had become almost foreign to us since it apparently rained more in this part of the U.S than anywhere else. I watched its rays reflect off of Wanda's angelic golden, wispy hair.

She was beautiful, and I would gladly have stayed in that bed snuggling and watching her while she slept for the rest of my life. Though, come to think of it that did sound a bit creepy; I wasn't a stalker for goodness sakes!

What was decidedly _not_ creepy was the Cullens' home. I'd expected coffins and goth décor, but instead found it to be well-lit, and tastefully decorated and open. Our group was all staying with the Cullens, in their very bedrooms as a matter of fact. We'd all protested that we couldn't impose like that – that we'd be just as happy staying in a sleeping bag on the floor (anything was better than a cave) – but Carlisle had informed us that their kind didn't sleep. Ever. So really it was no burden for them. Wanda looked like she was about to ask why they even bothered to have bedrooms, but seemed to think better of it, and after blushing furiously, mumbled a quiet "never mind."

Emmett, the big guy who had abducted us, laughed loudly at that, and even Jasper (Alice's companion), cracked a smile – which was saying something since he always seemed like he was in pain for some reason or other.

And so here I found myself getting the best night of sleep I'd had in years, smack dab in the middle of a den of "vegetarian" Vampires. A little alien invasion can really change your outlook on life.

Speaking of aliens and their invasions, the last few days had been a flurry of activity. Once the initial uproar ceased, and Kyle and Jacob were calmed down and made to see reason, and everything was explained to everyone, it was time to prepare for the trips.

As had become so painfully obvious over the last few years of the Soul's occupation on Earth (beginning first with Snow), the Souls were hesitant to allow their human children to become Hosts themselves.

In addition to that, there was apparently a smallish population of trustworthy Souls among the LaPush residents. It seemed that even though the Vamps and Weres had learned to "acquire" only somewhat older Hosts, or Hosts where Edward (the boy who had been staring at me, or the "Sullen Cullen" as I liked to call him) could hear two distinct voices in one head, sometimes the Human mind never did come back, and they put the Soul back inside the Host. Then, after talking to Snow, the Soul invariably saw the error of their ways and that what they were doing was not just murder, but genocide.

So the Souls were reasonable - they just didn't understand before that the humans were so individualized; that it really was murder to use them as Hosts. Of course, once a Soul realized the truth they were properly horrified and wanted to work towards saving humanity and ending the Soul occupation.

I don't know why the LaPush group hadn't considered talking to the other Souls yet. Perhaps they were worried that they were the only human outpost left on Earth and they didn't want to risk complete extinction.

Regardless of that, we all decided that a delegation needed to be sent to all the human outposts (that my group knew of) to tell them what was going on and invite a representative to a council back at LaPush in two month's time to determine how to proceed.

We'd been split into three teams, and each team had at least one Vamp, one Wolf, one Soul, and one Human. We were staggering our departures, so it wouldn't look too suspicious to the Souls (not that they ever suspected LaPush of anything, Souls were so trusting).

The first group, comprised of Edward and Bella, Jared and Melanie, and Sam and Snow, had left yesterday. They all seemed to get along quite well, so it was a good mix of personalities. Though I don't know how much the Sullen Cullen enjoyed letting Jared be in charge of the group. He seemed like a bit of a control freak to me, but hey, I've been accused of being the same thing at times.

The next group was leaving today, led by Kyle and Sunny, accompanied by Emmett and Rosalie, and a lone wolf named Seth (apparently the only werewolf that Rosalie could stand to be around for long periods of time.) Emmett treated Kyle like the long lost brother he never had and I'd overheard him joking about 'bringing Kyle over' so that they could really wrestle. I don't think Kyle picked up on the fact that Emmett had meant turning him into a vampire.

Rosalie seemed to like Sunny for some reason. Maybe because she was quiet and not even remotely as beautiful as Rosalie herself was? Yeah, Rose was that shallow. But I was truly glad to see that they all got along so well.

As for my group, we were going back to Jeb and the caves, and I obviously had Wanda with me. Alice had asked if she and Jasper could be the vampires to accompany us, and since Wanda seemed to like her, I didn't mind. Besides, her ability to see the future, and Jasper's ability to calm emotion might come in handy (especially with Maggie and Sharon; I already knew they weren't going to like this new development). Jacob and Nessie rounded out our group, and at first I was surprised that Jacob would leave LaPush – he was the pack's Alpha after all – but as he'd put it, Leah was more than capable of handling things in his absence. He and Nessie were obviously a couple, so of course she was going; though I did figure out why Edward had been glaring daggers at Jake during the meeting.

Apparently Edward was NOT Nessie's over-protective twin brother, but was in fact, her father, and Bella (also a vampire) was her mother. Biologically. I didn't even bother asking how the heck that happened; but I could figure out enough – clearly Bella had still been human when she'd had Nessie, and had become a Vampire at some later point. But that wasn't even the weird part. Apparently Renesme was only _eight years old_. And she was full grown; had been for a little over three years now. No wonder Edward was freaking out. I would be too!

Though apparently it was Nessie who had initiated a romantic relationship with Jacob a few months back. Until then, he was content to just follow her around and fulfill her every whim for the rest of his life. Some weird werewolf thing called "imprinting," and it had happened when Nessie was just a baby. There was nothing romantic to it then, just simple love and devotion on Jake's part. At least that's how it had been until Renesme had changed everything in their relationship.

I'm not gonna lie though, it was weird. I didn't understand it one bit, but everyone else seemed perfectly ok with it (well, Edward and Bella still seemed to be adjusting awkwardly to it), so I just decided to go with the flow on this one. Who was I to judge? Besides, my own perfect Wanderer was centuries older than me, and could conceivably live forever if she wanted to. It seemed like _ab_normal relationships were the norm these days.

"Hey," Wanda said sleepily as she slowly opened her eyes to look up at me. She flashed me her beautiful smile, momentarily dazzling me with the pure love and affection I could feel emanating from her.

How did I get so lucky?

"Hey," I said back to her softly. "Looks like Kyle was wrong; we did survive the night and the scary Vampires didn't eat us."

She giggled at that, something she never did when she was in Melanie's body, and I found it adorable. It suited her. I knew she found it embarrassing, but the truth was, Wanderer thought that anything that called attention to her was embarrassing.

"Speaking of Kyle, I've noticed a change in him," she said once she got her giggles under control.

"Oh really? Is he less thickheaded and obstinate?"

There was that adorable giggle again. "No! I mean yes – I mean, well, I think being around Snow and Sam was good for Kyle. Just look at them; they are in the exact same situation that Sunny and Kyle are in, and look at how well they've made it work. It's clear that Sam misses Snow's host dearly, but also very much loves Snow. And they have a family together. And well, they've made it work. Kyle has noticed this I think, and it's been a good thing. Jodi's not coming back, and I think he's learned that it's not a betrayal to her to move on with his life."

Now that I thought about it, she was right. Kyle's manner with Sunny had been a bit easier, and more natural. Hell, he'd even been affectionate to her. _Her_. Not because she was in Jodi's body, but because he actually seemed to like Sunny herself.

I pulled Wanda in close to my body, spooning around her delicate frame and hugging her tight while I buried my face into her hair. "See, there is hope for humanity. Even Kyle can learn."

Wanda let loose a girlish giggle that I quickly silenced with a kiss, and then another, and then another. Soon I was lost in a world of her kisses, and basked in the simple happiness of being with my perfect Wanderer.

**

* * *

Chapter Six: Look at what the cat dragged in**

Well, I figured out quickly why the Cullens lived in Forks, WA. It's not because they like miserable, cold, rainy weather, it's that the sun tends to blow their cover. It doesn't kill them or make them burn away; no, nothing so dramatic. Instead, it bounces off their skin the way the light bounces off a Soul's eyes. In short, they have glittery skin; the wolves don't call them Sparklepires for nothing.

Wanda had to suppress giggle fits when this was first explained to us, and even I had to bite back a snort. The mighty Vampires have killer glittery skin? I know we live in a bizarre world, but that just seems stupid. What sort of evolutionary leap would cause that? Not that it matters; it is what it is, so we all just learned to adjust. We only traveled at night, and even we were scrambling to make it into the cave's entrance as the sun was rising.

Despite their speed, Jasper and Alice were still caught by the sun's rays, and I saw firsthand the way their skin did shimmer and sparkle like a million brilliant diamonds. It was beautiful.

They both darted inside the cave mouth with their superhuman speed, and I walked in just in time to hear a terrible screech of metal and watched as Alice bent the muzzle of Jeb's shotgun up and away, like it was made of rubber, and Jasper ripped it out of Jamie's hands.

My jaw dropped. I'd known the Cullens were strong, I'd seen Emmett in action, but somehow seeing tiny little Alice perform something so Superman-like was humbling.

Jamie's eyes and mouth were wide, and faster then I'd ever seen her move Wanda was in front of Jamie, blocking him from the Vampires who were very scary at the moment.

"Stop! It's just Jamie, he wasn't trying to hurt you," Wanda yelled with her girlish voice.

"That's not true," trilled Alice. "I saw that he was going to shoot. He thought we were Seekers. He could have hurt all of you. And I wasn't going to hurt him, neither was Jazz."

I was momentarily surprised; I thought Alice's visions were blocked when a wolf was near, though she and Jasper might have gotten far enough ahead of the rest of us to where she could see a quick flash of the future. I wanted to figure out just how far away she had to be for it to start working again; 3 feet? 5 feet? 10 Feet?

"I wasn't gonna shoot, Wanda, honest! They surprised me, and I did think they might be Seekers, but I was never gonna shoot!" Jamie said, the words falling out of his mouth in a rapid blur.

"What are you even doing here and with Jeb's gun?" Wanda asked, turning to look at him.

"I was just going to ask the same question myself," Jeb said emerging from the shadows. "Ma'am, Sir, I'm much obliged to you for stopping Jamie from hurting anyone, himself included." Jeb inclined his head towards the Cullens.

"Children shouldn't play with guns. They aren't toys," Jasper said quietly, surprising me; he rarely ever spoke.

"I'm not a kid-" Jamie began, puffing out his teenage chest as if to emphasize the fact.

"Ain't you got school boy? Sharon's gonna be mighty sore at you," Jeb asked taking in everyone in the group.

"Ahhh Jeb, Wanda just got back-"

"I said get!" Jeb said, still not looking at Jamie, but instead punctuating his words with a jerked thumb pointing behind him.

"I never get to have any fun," Jamie moaned as he headed down the tunnel to class, and most likely extra homework from Sharon for being so late.

Jeb finally turned to look at me. "Ian, you didn't tell me you were bringing guests. Looks like you traded out Kyle for this little pixie of a gal. Seems to me like we got the better end of the deal." He said this last bit with a conspiratorial wink towards Alice, and she gave him a dazzling grin in return.

"She's a lot stronger than Kyle too, Jeb. And smarter."

"Is that so?" He turned his gaze back to the Cullens and Jacob. "Welcome to my home. Only rule is I make the rules! You follow that one, and we should get along just fine. Now I 'spect we need to head down to see Doc. You folks don't strike as being from around here."

Alice flashed another dazzling grin at Jeb and gave Jasper's hand a squeeze. "No sir, we aren't. I was born in Mississippi, and Jasper here was born in Texas. Jacob and Renesme were both born in Washington State."

"Right sweetie, and I was born on Krypton. Come on, you can tell me all about it on our way down to see Doc."

*** * * * ***

I rarely say this, but Kyle was right; Jeb was pissed that he missed out on meeting the Vampires and Werewolves, though he was downright tickled that we'd brought a few back for him.

In fact, it took twice as long as it should have to explain to Doc and Jeb the entire situation since Jeb kept interrupting with about a million questions. Jeb actually whooped loudly with glee when Jacob phased for him. I thought Doc was going to pass out when he found out that Nessie was only 8 years old. Both Doc and Jeb were wary of Jasper, as any sane man would be, and of course Alice delighted them both with her easy manner. Wanda had a knowing smile throughout it all and I recalled how Jeb had been the same way with her when she'd first arrived in the caves.

"So, what you're saying is that not all of you are, how did you put it? 'Vegetarians'?" Doc asked.

"No," Alice replied. "Most of our kind aren't. We are not the norm. It's not an easy way of life, and it's something we all struggle with daily."

"I'm surprised that you or the others of your kind allowed the Souls to invade. With your strength and speed, why didn't you just stop them?"

Alice made a face and explained. "In hindsight it would have been easy for us to stop the invasion, if we'd been willing to reveal ourselves to the Souls and/or attack them. But we knew nothing about them at the time and were more concerned with protecting our own Humans from the invasion."

"Plus, it goes against our very nature to reveal ourselves," Jasper continued. "There would have been grave consequences if we had."

This was news to me. "What could possibly scare Vampires into silence?" I asked without thinking.

Jasper raised an eyebrow at me and stared at me with his golden eyes. "We weren't scared."

"It's the blood sucking Volturi. They are why we couldn't do anything," Jacob spat out, and I noticed that Nessie stepped in closer to him when he said the name. He put a comforting arm around her, and despite what Jasper had said, I could tell that at least she was scared.

We were all clearly confused, so Alice graciously explained. "The Volturi are a sort of Vampire governing body led by three very old, powerful, and dangerous Vampires, Aro, Marcus, and Caius. They enforce The Law."

By the way she said it, I could tell she meant there was only one Vampire Law.

"The Law is, of course, to never reveal ourselves to the humans. Werewolves don't count as they are a part of our supernatural world, but normal humans could never know about us. There would have been dire consequences," Alice finished calmly.

"And by dire we mean death and destruction and an epic Vampire war with casualties not just on both sides, but to the humans we love and care about as well," Jacob added, never taking his eyes off Renesme. She huddled in closer to him and placed one of her hands on his cheek. Clearly, the Volturi had threatened her at some point in the past for her to be this frightened of them; especially since she'd stopped talking out loud and had resorted to her strange cheek-touching form of communication.

"Well, the way I see it, haven't you done just that? Didn't you just tell all of us 'Normal Humans' about your existence? Or do you turn into a frog when I ain't lookin'?" Jeb asked with a grin, shifting his gaze from Alice to Doc.

Alice flashed another dazzling smile at Jeb. "Well that's precisely why they must never know what we have told you, and they certainly must not find out what we have planned."

"And just what is it that _we_ have planned?" Doc asked.

So Alice told him.

**

* * *

Chapter Seven: It should have been so easy…**

In the pre-dawn hour I was, once again, in my most favorite spot; the arms of my beloved. She snored softly in her sleep, something I found completely fascinating since she'd never done it when she was in Melanie's body. She was so different in this body, yet still the same. No matter what body she was in, she was, and always would be, my perfect Wanderer.

I felt a twinge of sadness as I realized I would only get to spend one lifetime with her, while she would be able to live on in whatever host body she was placed in. I was beyond glad that she would never die; I only wished there was some way I would get to spend eternity with her. It was a shame I'd not been born a Soul.

I realized the room was getting faintly lighter, and figured the Cullens were probably back by now. Alice, Jasper, and Renesme had taken advantage of nightfall to go hunting and maintain their 'vegetarian' diet. Poor coyotes didn't stand a chance. I wasn't quite sure why Nessie insisted on hunting – she could live on human food just fine. But, according to Wanda, she still preferred blood.

Yuck.

Thankfully that bit of info had not been revealed at last night's tribunal.

It had been decided, logically, that we needed to have a tribunal. The decision to expose the remaining Humans to the Souls wasn't something that Jeb could decide unilaterally for the rest of the cave dwellers. So, the twenty or so Humans in the caves gathered together in the game room to listen to _the plan_.

We'd all agreed beforehand that the true nature of Vampires and the Werewolves would not be revealed to the rest of the Humans here. The fewer Humans who knew the truth, the better. The Cullens and Jacob's pack were willing to reveal their existence to the Souls if necessary, but hoped that they would be rational enough to leave Earth after they saw how they had committed _genocide_, and not have to resort to scaring the Souls away with their presence.

This was all due, of course, to the fact that they did not want to do anything that might bring the Volturi's wrath down on them or the Humans hidden away in LaPush, since apparently last time that happened they'd barely avoided an epic Vampire/Werewolf war.

Turns out I was right about my suspicions regarding Nessie and the Volturi. Shortly after Jacob Black imprinted on her, a vampire from another coven saw Renesme from a distance and thought she was an "immortal child" – basically a vampire child that had been bitten by an adult Vampire. Apparently this was really bad, "Forbidden" to be exact, because, as we all know, normal toddlers aren't known for their self-control. Try to imagine a super-human vampire kid, with a HUGE thirst.

So, instead of going to the Cullens to ask them what the HECK they were thinking, this vampire, Irina, ran off and tattled to the Volturi.

You'd think the Volturi, being the vampire police force, would check out Irina's story right?

Not so much.

Instead, Aro (the leader of the bunch) decided that this would be a great time to add Alice and the Sullen Cullen to his vampire collection because of their unique abilities. So, intent on killing Renesme and all the other Cullens, the Volturi traveled to Forks. However, the Cullens had gathered witnesses from around the world to prove that Renesme was not an immortal child. Alice brought another half-breed, Nahuel, who explained that half-breeds posed no danger to the vampires.

Convinced that Renesme was not a threat (and adding to the fact that a bunch of enormous werewolves showed up to defend Nessie), the Volturi left, and there was no epic battle.

But to say that Aro, Marcus, and Caius were probably harboring a grudge and looking for any reason to come after the Cullens would be a bit of an understatement. So, while Jeb and Doc knew the truth about the Quileutes and the Cullens, no one else would be told.

Alice, being the most non-threatening member of the group laid out the plan for everyone after explaining about Snow and the other Souls who had come to live with them in LaPush,

"Essentially we're going to 'crash' the Global Environmental Summit being held in Seattle. It's the ideal setting since representatives from every major country in the world will be there, and it's the closest to a worldwide governing body that we're going to find. Snow, Wanderer, and the other Souls who have 'gone native' will lead us in there with their Human children (those that have them) and explain everything they have come to realize and their refusal to allow their children to be used as Hosts. The Souls will see reason, and the occupation will end," she finished brightly.

I could see the confusion and fear in all their eyes; they had no way of knowing that Alice could literally see the future, and that this was exactly how it would play out.

"So wait a sec, you all just want us to basically walk into the middle of a bunch of those murderers, wave a white flag, tell them they were wrong, and expect them to agree, pack up and go back to wherever it is they came from?" Maggie asked cynically, with Sharon and Lacy (Wanda's former Seeker's Host) frowning deeply behind her. Trust the three of them to balk at seeing reason.

Alice was not bothered in the least, and flashed a dazzling grin at everyone in the room, including her three hecklers. Sharon and Maggie did not look pleased, and Lacy frowned sourly.

"Yes, we do in fact believe that the Souls, once shown the error of their ways, will close Earth for settling and no longer use humans as hosts. Though, the majority of the existing Souls will remain inside their hosts because the humans they are in are most likely gone for good. But, in time, humanity will take over again through children. Perhaps having been raised by Souls, Earth is destined for a time of peace and prosperity. At least, that's how I _see_ it," Alice finished with a wink toward Wanda, Jeb, Doc and myself.

Sharon and Maggie stormed out, with Lacy hot on their heels. No surprise there.

But what _was _surprising was the amount of convincing we _didn't_ need to do! I attributed a lot of that to Jasper's gift. He managed to keep nearly everyone calm and receptive. Except for the three who just left, of course. Though the fact that all they did was storm out of the room, instead of something a bit more violent, could be attributed to Jasper.

It seemed that most of the humans here in the caves were tired of living in fear, and if the humans in other outposts were willing to try, then so were they. And so, the tribunal decided we would reveal our existence to the Souls and hope that Snow, Wanderer, and Sunny were the norm, not the exception.

I felt a yawn come on just then and realized I was still a bit sleepy. Snuggling up against Wanda, I pushed last night's tribunal from my mind and felt myself drift back to sleep.

I was jerked suddenly awake as Doc and Jeb came crashing through the door, with Alice, Jasper, Jacob, and Nessie close behind them.

"They're gone!" Jacob blurted.

"Who's gone?" Wanda asked sleepily, propping herself up on an elbow.

"Who do ya think?" Jeb responded with a sour look on his face.

"Maggie, Sharon, and Lacy," Jasper responded in his calm, reasoned voice. Of course it was them. Who else could it be?

"Why did they go?" I heard Wanda ask, but I already knew. One look at Doc's guilty demeanor and I knew he'd told Sharon all about the vamps and the wolves.

"More importantly, where did they go?" I asked looking directly at Alice.

"They planned this perfectly. Knowing what I was and what I could do, they waited until I was out hunting with Nessie. That way my ability to see what they were planning would be blocked by her presence. They left just prior to sunrise, before we returned from the hunt, when they knew we couldn't follow them for fear of discovery and revelation to the Souls of what we all are. You must understand their plan by now; they have gone to see the Volturi."


	5. Book Four: Carlisle

**Book Four Carlisle**

"_Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart of life, and is prophetic of eternal good." _- Francesco Petrarch

**

* * *

Chapter One: Worried**

I watched the moonlight glitter faintly off my white hand as it rested on my bedroom's balcony guardrail. It was a rare, clear night, and I could actually see the stars. I forgot how much I missed them here in Forks. But of course the overcast and gloomy clouds were what allowed my family and me to lead almost normal lives.

What was normal these days? Certainly not humanity. For once in their thousands of years of existence they were in the minority; an endangered species. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my kind numbered more then the remaining humans on Earth now. The thought troubled me greatly, but before I could dwell on it, a smooth marble hand slipped over mine and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Esme asked looking up at me, her soft brown curls perfectly framing her beautiful face and honey colored eyes. How I loved her.

"I was just pondering the fate of humanity." I replied with the smile I reserved just for her.

"Oh, is that all?" she asked impishly. "I thought perhaps you were up here waiting for a certain phone call."

Ah yes, _the_ phone call. We knew it was coming thanks to Alice's gift, and the thought of it sobered me up. I pulled Esme into my arms and hugged her tightly. She was right; I was waiting for a phone call I hoped would never come.

"You know me too well," I whispered into her hair. She knew I'd come up here to be alone, to avoid the rest of my family, and do this loathsome task on my own. Jasper had asked why I would bother trying to reason with Aro. We all knew not to bet against Alice, but I had to try. I had to believe the future wasn't written.

"Do you want me to go?" Esme murmured against my chest.

"No. But I think you should. This won't be pleasant."

"Few things in a vampire's life ever are, dearest. I'll stay." Her response was gentle but firm and I sighed. She was definitely the mother in our little family and too easily underestimated by most of our kind. It was true she was no fighter, but she had strength and willpower. And above all things, love. Love for life. All life. She and Snow were very much alike in that regard. No wonder they had naturally become such good friends. Both of them were born to be mothers.

"Snow and her group are back," she said conversationally.

"Oh?"

"Yes, and they brought a few of the humans they met, and one Soul."

"The humans had a Soul sympathetic to the human cause with them?" I asked, more surprised than I should have been. Hadn't I seen it happen over and over again? Once a Soul realized that they were committing genocide, they immediately supported the cause of humanity and closing Earth for future colonization. Of course this new clan of humans that Jared had lead his group to would have at least one Soul with them.

"They did. His name is Burns Living Flowers, though everyone just calls him Burns."

I looked down at Esme in surprise. "The fire planet?"

She nodded up at me in response and continued. "I know; we haven't met anyone from there yet. You can ask him all about it later. Right now he's catching up with Jeb and Ian, and I seem to remember Leah taking an instant liking to him - she was only mildly rude to him, which is, of course, wonderful," Esme said with all sincerity. She'd always been saddened over the fact that Leah had yet to find anyone to be with in LaPush. Like any typical mother, she wanted everyone conveniently paired off and in love.

I gave her a quick squeeze and chuckled. "You know what Leah did last time you tried to meddle in her love life, sweetheart."

"I know, I know. And I'm not going to do anything this time I promise! I'm just observing is all."

"I don't think Leah will view it that way," I responded, placing a soft kiss on her lips. I felt her mouth grin against mine, and she answered, "Well, I'll just have to be sneakier this time."

The soft kisses continued for a time; they were gentle kisses, not kisses of flaming passion (though we did have plenty of those), but of eternal love and devotion. The sort of kisses that said "we have forever to do this, let's take our time." So we did.

The phone chirped at me, interrupting our moment together, and we gently pulled apart. Her large eyes stared up at me, and a look of worry crossed her face. I was certain my face mirrored hers as I stared at the phone.

It was Aro.

I answered as Esme leaned her head up against my chest again. "Hello Aro; to what do I owe the honor?"

"Hello my friend! I was just calling to see how things were among you and the food," his rich, velvety voice responded.

"Things are fine here in LaPush. Quiet. We mostly keep to ourselves, as you well know," I said cautiously, not wanting to reveal anything through the tenor of my voice.

"That's funny, because I had heard that perhaps you and your family were planning on walking in the sunlight in front of those not of our kind."

"Aro-"

"Which I immediately discounted because _that is forbidden_ as _you_ well know," he retorted, throwing my words back at me.

"Nothing to say in your defense?" he asked when I didn't respond. "Come now Carlisle, we are old friends. I'm hurt you don't feel you can talk to me."

I gritted my teeth trying not to be frustrated. The last time I'd tried to talk to or explain anything to Aro, he and the rest of the Volturi had tried to kill my family. It made it a bit difficult to trust him now, but I was willing to try. Anything to avoid the destruction Alice had foreseen.

"My friend, I can tell you in all honesty that we do not intend to reveal ourselves to anyone not of our kind." That was the truth. We had no plans to tell any other humans or Souls, outside those who already knew about us, about vampires or werewolves. We were law-abiding citizens after all. Mostly.

I heard silence on the other end for a few moments, as though Aro were pondering my words. Finally I heard his voice again, friendly, almost jovial. "But you do intend to do something." It was not a question, and in that moment I knew that he had Jeb's humans: Maggie, Sharon, and Lacy.

"I-we-yes. We do intend to do something." It was time to explain to him, and perhaps change Alice's terrible vision. "A few of the Souls that live among us want the colonization of Earth to stop. They feel that by using humans as hosts, they are committing genocide. So they are going to reveal the existence of the humans here in LaPush and explain to the rest of their kind why they would like to end the invasion. The Souls are all very much alike. They will see reason. It will work. Alice has seen this."

"Did she now?" Aro asked in the same jovial tone. He seemed positively giddy with anticipation of something, and that made me nervous. I didn't tend to like the things Aro got excited over.

"Yes," I responded, cautious again. "So, are we okay now that you know what we plan on doing? There will be no revelation of our kind to anyone." The Volturi should have been satisfied. Nothing would change for them. Food was food in their eyes, just like when the Souls arrived. There was no reason to do anything either way.

"Well, my friend, we now have a new problem," Aro said cheerfully. "Do you remember the last time we spoke, many years ago at the beginning of the invasion, and I told you why we wouldn't help stop it? Because we didn't care about the Humans themselves? And that in fact, they now tasted better than ever?"

If my heart still beat it would have been hammering against my chest. I didn't like where this was going, not one bit. "Yes, Aro. I remember."

"Well, what we didn't know at the time, but very quickly found out, was that not only do they taste better with a Soul inside, but they actually make us stronger than before. It's not a drastic change, but it is noticeable. I feel a thousand years younger as a matter of fact! As strong as a newborn."

His words chilled me to the bone. "I see."

"Oh but do you really? Do you see how we could never allow you to do this, to convince the Souls to leave?" The cheerful tone in his voice was somehow menacing now. "We're coming my friend. And we will destroy your little hive of humanity starting with these three."

Before I could say anything in response I heard a woman scream in terror. She was quickly joined by two more female voices. The screams rapidly changed in tenor from terror to pain, and suddenly they were shrieking. Esme and I listened to them, staring at the phone, horrified, and unable to do anything to stop the women from being ripped to pieces by the Volturi.

Then the phone went dead, and Esme sagged in my arms.

**

* * *

Chapter Two: Choices**

"So there you have it. We can either leave the Humans here in LaPush to be murdered by the Volturi, or we can stay and fight, and, because we are severely outnumbered, most likely be destroyed ourselves in the process. We already know what the Pack is going to do," I said calmly meeting each of their eyes as I gazed around the table. Bella and Edward to my right, Alice and Jasper at the end of the table, Rosalie and Emmett to my left, and Esme standing by my side. Nessie and the Pack were not here because we couldn't risk having any of Alice's visions blocked by their presence. Besides, we already knew what they would do anyway.

"I would think the answer is fairly clear, Carlisle. We stay. We fight," Edward said calmly with Bella nodding her head in assent. I'd expected that answer from the two of them.

Alice looked up to Jasper who in turn looked down at her; their eyes locked in a silent conversation, expressing so much to each wordlessly. Without warning they finished and both looked up at me solemnly. Jasper gave me a quick nod as he pulled Alice in close to his side. They would stay and fight.

All eyes turned to look at Rosalie and Emmett who were also having a conversation about it, though theirs was anything but silent.

"Awe, come on babe, please?" Emmett pleaded with Rosalie, who was standing straight with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, an angry look on her face.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease?" Emmett begged again clasping his hands together. "I can't miss the big fight babe. I don't know if I'll get a chance to have this much fun again!"

"Is that what you think this is? Fun?!" Rosalie snapped at him. "They are as strong as newborns, Emmett. _NEWBORNS! _And they have the knowledge and experience of older Vampires. This isn't a game!"

Her face softened, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Honey, I know you're the biggest, baddest, strongest vamp out there, but this is real danger. You could get hurt, even die – forever."

Suddenly, we all felt like we were intruding. We all looked anywhere but at the two of them to try to give them some semblance of privacy. Unfortunately, we could still hear them.

"If anything happened to you, I don't know what I'd do," Rosalie whispered softly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emmett gather her into his arms. "Hey," he began tilting her chin up to look at him. "It's me. Your monkey-man remember? I'll be fine. I promise."

Rosalie stared at him for a long time before responding. "I suppose you'll be a total bear to live with if I don't let you stay and play… but so help me Emmett Cullen, if one hair on your head is hurt I'll never forgive you!"

"So I can stay and fight?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes," she said resignedly. "We'll stay and fight."

"Woot!" Emmett yelled punching a fist in the air as if he'd just won a gold medal. "Alright! Esme, Carlisle, we're staying!"

Esme and I looked at each other barely able to conceal our smiles. "Yes Emmett, we gathered that," Esme admonished. That got a few chuckles around the table, and the mood relaxed some. Though it could have easily been Jasper just trying to calm everyone's nerves.

"Well," I began. "Obviously we need to inform the Pack of our decision to stay and fight, though I doubt they thought we'd decide differently. What I would like to ask is that Esme and Rosalie go to Esme's Island with Nessie, and wait out the battle. I would prefer Alice and Bella accompany you, but being that we will need them in order to have even a remote possibility of succeeding here-"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Rosalie said firmly. "You need me, and just because I don't have any 'special powers' doesn't mean I'm going to run away. I'm still stronger than any human or wolf! Don't bother asking again."

I looked towards Esme, afraid of what I might see there.

"My place is by your side," she said simply, and that was that. I didn't actually think I had any hope of succeeding, but I had to try.

"Renesme will stay in LaPush with the younger wolves to be a last line of defense for the humans. Hopefully, it won't come to that," Bella said morosely.

With the family decided, we all turned expectantly towards Jasper, our tactician, and the fighter with the most experience of all of us. He had been a Major in the Civil War, and then a leader in the Mexican Vampire Wars after that, so it went without saying that he was better equipped for this sort of planning than anyone in the room.

"Well, the plan is really quite simple," Jasper calmly began, as if battle plans were a matter of course. "We will cut the Volturi off in the same meadow from before. Bella will use her gift to shield all of us from Jane's illusions of pain, Alec's ability to block our senses, and Chelsea's ability to break our emotional bonds to each other. Naturally, she will then be the Volturi's primary target, so we will array our forces in a tight defensive circular pattern around her.

"This serves two purposes. First, it protects Bella from a physical attack so she can, in turn, protect us from mental attacks, and second, since the enemy is a much larger and stronger force than we will be, it will force them to spread out to encircle us, weakening them and strengthening ourselves.

"Then of course, they will send their strongest and best fighters to attack. We'll do what we can to stop them, and continue to do that until they give up. Or we're all dead," Jasper finished in the same calm tone he began with.

"So that's it then?" Bella asked. "We fight and hope we don't all die? We hope that it's enough to save Humanity? We're not even going to ask our friends to come? To help? What about the Denalis? The Egyptians? The Amazons? Any of them - they came for Nessie; would they not help us now?"

Jasper answered her before I could. "I'm sure the Denali coven will come to our aid, but it's doubtful that anyone else will. They aren't 'vegetarians,' Bella. Like the Volturi, they probably prefer the Souls to plain old humans at this point. In fact, we shouldn't be surprised to see some of them on the other side with the Volturi on this issue.

Everyone stared at the table at Jasper's words. None of us wanted to think about fighting our friends, but we had to be open to the possibility, lest we be surprised in the upcoming battle.

"I'll inform the pack," I said, dreading the unavoidable death and destruction that was to come.

**

* * *

Chapter Three: Preparations**

"How is your clan doing?" I asked the wiry old man standing next to me. Jeb was a survivor, and so were the humans who lived with him, but I was concerned that after the slaughter of three members of their clan, the blow to their morale might be insurmountable.

"Doc is obviously beside himself at the moment. He blames himself for what happened since he told Sharon the truth about your natures in a bit of pillow talk during a misguided attempt at alleviating her fears. I suppose he figured that if she knew what Alice was and that she could see the future, she'd be ok with the plan. Love makes people blind, I've always said."

Jeb paused a bit before continuing in the same matter of fact voice. "As for the rest of us; well, we don't blame ourselves, and we don't blame Doc – much. He was foolish for saying anything, but we've all done our fair share of stupid things. As for Maggie, Sharon, and Lacy… they took their lives into their own hands the moment they stepped out of the caves to go ask for help from VAMPIRES. Uh, no offense intended," he finished, pretending to tip a hat towards me.

"None taken," I said with a smile touching the corners of my mouth; but it was a smile I didn't feel. Despite Jeb's words I knew he was hurting and feeling the loss of a sister and niece profoundly. They all had to be.

We stood there in silence for a time watching my family, the Denali coven, and the Pack practice for the impending battle. Emmett was in the middle of the clearing taking on Jasper, Edward, Rosalie, Garrett, Kate and a few of the wolves all at once and was doing quite well. It had been Jasper's idea; he figured this was how the Volturi were going to attack Emmett since he was known for his amazing fighting ability and would be the primary one protecting Bella. Only sheer overwhelming numbers would be able to take Emmett down in a battle. Edward was, of course, the most difficult for him to deal with, but it wasn't completely fair since Edward was reading Emmett's mind after all.

Jacob was in one corner of the yard with Nessie and a few of the other younger Wolves - the teens really – teaching them fighting basics after Nessie demanded it. We all hoped there would be no need for these children to fight, but, as Nessie had so eloquently put it, they'll be just as dead with or without the training if we get overwhelmed by the Volturi, and Jacob needed to teach them how to defend themselves, if only to buy them a moment or two so they could get away.

The other Wolves were spread throughout the clearing waiting their turn to fight with Emmett, or playing around wrestling among themselves. I noticed Leah wasn't among them and wondered if perhaps Esme had been correct in her assumptions about Leah and Burns. I hoped so.

Leah had not been hostile to Snow after it was obvious that she and Sam were going to remain together; in fact, she'd acted more resigned to the fact that Sam was never meant to be with her. She'd mellowed out considerably over the years, so, more than anything, it was simply sad to see her so lonely; the only female Werewolf, and the only adult one who hadn't imprinted at this point. So, if she had in fact found someone to spend her life with, I was beyond happy for her.

"Carlisle," Jeb said abruptly. "What can we, the members of my group who are here, do to help with the fight?"

That surprised me. I figured Jeb for a practical man, so his question caught me off guard. "Nothing Jeb. If you or any other human came into battle, you would be killed quicker than you could even fathom. You see for yourself how fast we move; how indestructible we are. You would waste your lives for nothing," I said, motioning to the supernatural creatures before us as they practiced.

Jeb mulled over my words for a moment before responding. "It just don't seem right. Y'all fighting for us, for our survival, and us just sitting back and doing nothin'. Besides, you're letting Alice fight, and she's just an itty bitty thing."

I raised an eyebrow at that and gestured towards Emmett. "Alice is more than capable of taking care of herself Jeb. See for yourself."

Jeb looked back towards Emmett just in time to see Alice join the fray. Faster than most of them (though Edward was still the fastest), she was hard to follow. Using her ability to see the future, Alice was soon finding every hole left open in Emmett's defense and was always gone before Emmett could do anything in retaliation. She danced around him everywhere, and then - with the speed of a striking viper - was suddenly perched gracefully on Emmett's shoulders, his head in both her hands ready to rip it off, while Edward and Jasper secured his arms and the Wolves his feet. Emmett had been beaten, and laughing, conceded defeat.

I turned to look at Jeb expectantly, figuring that now he would see reason. I forgot to take into account just how stubborn he was.

Shaking his head, Jeb continued. "That don't show nothin', 'cept that your boy there takes a whole heap to be brought down. Look, there's got to be something that hurts your kind."

He was determined, and only the cold hard facts could dissuade him now. "The only things strong enough to rip apart our flesh are other Vampires and our teeth and Werewolves and their teeth and claws. So, being that you are neither and have neither, you cannot effectively fight against a Vampire."

"What do you do with the pieces once you pull a Vampire apart?" he asked, refusing to drop the subject.

"We burn them and then scatter the ashes. It's the only way to completely destroy one of our kind," I said, hoping that would end the matter.

"So, you can burn?" At my confirming nod his eyes lit up, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "Um, thanks for your help Carlisle. I need to find Jared and Burns. I've got an idea. See you tomorrow at the final planning meeting."

And with that he was gone, leaving me to try to figure what in the world he was planning.

**

* * *

Chapter Four: Strategy**

Two days later we were meeting inside the LaPush Clinic's waiting room, having, what Jasper called a "final mission briefing". According to Alice, the Volturi would be arriving tomorrow, and we would be waiting for them. Jasper was in the middle of explaining which wolves would stay behind with the humans and which of them would accompany the rest of us who went to the town limits to set up a defensive screen, and hopefully keep the Volturi at bay. In the middle of Jasper's instructions Jeb, Jared, Ian, Kyle, and Burns walked in, each carrying rifles with barrels large enough to shoot an egg and with very determined looks on their faces.

I couldn't help but heave a sigh. I had already explained to Jeb that bullets, no matter how large they were, couldn't hurt my kind. He and his clan were particularly hard headed it seemed.

Jeb raised a hand forestalling a comment from any of us. "Before any of you get your panties in a bind and remind me that 'bullets don't hurt vampires', I already know that. And I'm not stupid enough to try what you say can't be done. But, ol' Carlisle here gave me an idea that I figured had a shot of workin'."

Well, he definitely had everyone's attention now. Taking our collective silence as permission to continue, Jeb went on. "So apparently vampires are killed by being ripped apart, burned, and then the ashes scattered. Well, I wondered why not skip straight to the burning part?"

"Because they'd just put themselves out and not be any worse for the wear, and then jump back in the fight. So, aside from delaying them for a bit, all you've done is anger them even more," Jasper answered with a patronizing tone. "Jeb, I've been fighting my fellow Vampires for a while now. Do you not think this has been tried before?"

Jeb nodded his head at this but didn't appear to be phased in the slightest. "Yeah, you see, I thought that might be the case. So I was thinking, what if you could find a way to light them on fire and they _couldn't extinguish the fire_?"

If he thought he'd had everyone's attention before, he was mistaken. The room was absolutely still. I think even the Pack was holding their breath.

"Burns, why don't you explain since you developed it," Jeb said motioning Burns forward. Turning back towards me Jeb whispered conspiratorially, "Burns is a bit of an incendiary expert. They didn't call him 'Burns the flowers' back on the fire world for nothing."

Burns came forward and after flashing a big grin towards Leah – who blushed before grinning back – held forward the rifle for us all to see it better.

"For those of you who don't know, this is an M-16 rifle, standard issue to the military prior to the invasion of Earth. It's not important though since we all know bullets can't hurt vamps," He said indicating the weapon. Then, pointing at the large barrel beneath the much smaller main barrel he continued. "This is an M-203 grenade launcher. It's not really meant to be a projectile weapon - the parabolic arc the grenade needs to fly tends to make it difficult - but will work as one if you need it too."

Jasper interrupted again, looking frustrated by the delay. "Burns, this all sounds very nice, but grenades can't hurt us either. The shrapnel thrown by one is as ineffective as a bullet on our skin."

Burns grinned at him, and then pulled out a grenade designed to be launched from the M-203. "Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to my friend Willie Pete. Otherwise known as White Phosphorus."

A few eyes, like mine, rose at the revelation, though most faces just registered confusion. Edward had a jubilant look on his face, since he could see everything that Jeb had been planning, and Alice immediately got up off her seat and ran outside to get far enough away from the wolves in order to see how things would play out.

Meeting all the waiting stares casually, as if he were just discussing a professional sporting event, Burns went into a lengthy explanation. "WP is a flare and smoke producing incendiary agent that's made from a common allotrope of the chemical element phosphorus. The main utility of white phosphorus munitions were to create smokescreens to mask movement from the enemy. However, white phosphorus has a secondary effect. While much less efficient than ordinary fragmentation effects in causing casualties to humans or Souls, white phosphorus burns quite fiercely and can set cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles – like vampires - on fire."

Burns paused here, and with a slight smile towards us all finished, "The best part about WP, is that you can't put it out once it lights itself on fire. You can't smother it, and it will continue to burn even under water. Since it doesn't need oxygen to burn, WP will only go out once it's completely burned itself up. Mr. Jasper, I'd love to see a vampire try to put out a WP fire."

Suddenly it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room and everyone, vampire and werewolf alike, were staring at the small group of humans dumfounded. How had we not thought of this? Was it because we were all so rooted in our old ways? Or, more likely, because we were all so arrogant that we wouldn't even consider that anything could hurt us, since for thousands of years nothing could?

Jasper interrupted my contemplation's. "It could actually work. While I don't think the WP will actually kill any of them, it will put them out of the fight and damage and demoralize them sufficiently that they will not want to return to the battle. Our secret weapon could be the thing that tips the balance in our favor."

"You didn't honestly think we humans would let you guys have all the fun did you?" Jeb asked, patting his weapon. "Nope, we're coming to the fight boys – er, and girls, sorry ladies," Jeb finished by tipping his head towards Esme, Rose, Bella, and a newly returned Alice who was beaming.

"Let me guess," Ian asked. "It will work?" Alice nodded towards him before dancing back over to Jasper's waiting lap, and settling down happily into it.

Jasper automatically encircled her in his arms and looked up at Jeb. "This will, of course, require a change in our tactics."

Jeb grinned back at Jasper broadly, "Well it just so happens I've got one. I once read a novel called _Gates of Fire_. Have any of you ever heard about The Battle of Thermopylae"

"That's the one where the 300 Spartans held off hundreds of thousands of Persian invaders at the Hot Gates," Edward broke in.

"So we're gonna set stuff on fire? Duuuuuude!" I heard Emmett say to Kyle while simultaneously clapping him on the shoulder, which in turn made Kyle's legs nearly buckle. I chuckled at Emmett's exuberance, knowing that it was most likely going to be the last time in a while that I'd find something to smile about.

I drifted to the back of the room and stood next to Esme, only half listening while the new tactics were worked out. The battle was unavoidable, and no amount of talking would prevent it this time, much to my deep sorrow.

**

* * *

Chapter Five: Armies**

We'd gathered near the meadow where our last confrontation with the Volturi had been held. And just as then, it was snowing softly. By the time the Volturi arrived the meadow would be blanketed in fresh, clean, glittering snow.

Adjacent to the meadow was a ravine with high, sheer mountain walls that jutted up to the sky majestically, and were covered in the tall pine trees of the area. This ravine was where we would make our last stand, where we would fight the Volturi. It would be our "Hot Gates" and hopefully, like the Spartans of old, we would succeed in holding off the Volturi.

Most of the humans were back in LaPush, where they were being guarded, albeit unknowingly, by Renesme and a few of the younger members of the pack. The few humans who did know about the world of werewolves and vampires were here; ready to fight as a part of Jeb's team. They were all armed with the grenade launchers that could shoot WP at the Volturi once they were within range.

I looked up, and even with my Vampire eyes had a hard time seeing Charlie Swan perched high up in the tree above me; they'd all done a really good job at camouflaging themselves, and I didn't have the heart to tell them it didn't matter. We could all smell them from miles away, which actually worked in our favor. Perhaps the Volturi would think we'd relocated the LaPush humans here to defend them.

I tried not to sigh audibly as I watched everyone make the final preparations. Bella and Edward were working with Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie to determine where the best place to defend Bella would be, affording her both protection from attack, and a good view of the mouth of the ravine so she could shield all of us.

The pack were positioning themselves around the opening of the ravine, and those who had not phased yet were removing their clothing so that they could do so. I noticed that Leah had not yet phased and was lingering with Burns at the base of the tree he would soon climb and use as his shooting platform. I turned away when it appeared that Burns was about to kiss her, wanting to afford them with what little privacy they had. They were most likely saying their final goodbyes, just as the rest of us soon would.

It all seemed so hopeless, and the truth was, if the Volturi made it past us, there was no point in leaving anyone back to guard the humans of LaPush. My only hope was that once Aro destroyed all of us, he would be satisfied and leave Nessie and the others alive. I couldn't bear the thought of harm coming to my granddaughter, or anyone else for that matter. It didn't help that Alice's visions were clouded regarding the outcome of the battle. She said there were too many undetermined factors. It could go either way. The only thing that was certain was that there would be a battle.

Cool hands slipped around me from behind, and I felt Esme press her head against my back. "Penny for your thoughts?" she asked, causing me to smile slightly at her use of the familiar phrase. She could always tell when I was troubled.

I turned around in her arms so I could face her and held her tightly to me, resting my cheek on the top of her head. "You know my thoughts as well as you know me, dearest."

"I'm not Edward; I can't read minds, as much as you like to infer that I can."

"And thank goodness for that!" I responded, tilting her head up to look me in the eyes. "If you were Edward I couldn't do this." And then brought my lips crushing down on hers. It was as though an old steady fire had just had gasoline thrown on it, and it consumed us. My entire world was wrapped up in her arms, her hair, her scent, her lips, as we kissed each other hungrily. Neither of us would say the words, but we both knew that this was our goodbye.

All too soon, I felt the snow stop falling, and the entire mood in the ravine shifted. Regretfully breaking away from my wife, I looked across the meadow and saw them.

The Volturi were slowly breaking out from the trees on the opposite side of the meadow. Pausing in a line momentarily in the shadows, they stared at us, and I could feel Aro's eyes on me. Then they moved forward across the glittering snow, hands and faces sparkling in the rare sun shining down on them. Behind them were two more rows of Vampires, and we were easily out numbered, even counting the Pack, five to one.

We would be slaughtered.

The Volturi moved slowly, purposefully across the clearing until they reached the center of it, and then stopped.

"Looks like they picked most of them for their brawn, not brains," Seth said from beside me, barefoot, shirtless, and in a ratty old pair of cut off shorts.

"Aro knows that his usual fighters will have no effect on us while Bella has her shield up. These are to take her out. Then he will use Jane, Alec, and Chelsea to incapacitate the rest of us while they kill us. Shouldn't you have phased by now?" I asked turning to look at him.

"Nah, I'm gonna wait until the fighting starts to phase. Besides, I can't talk to you when I'm in my wolf form," Seth said with a sloppy grin towards me.

I was about to respond when suddenly Aro's voice boomed across the meadow. "Carlisle! We would hear what you have to say now. Come to us."

I had known this was coming, so giving Esme's hand a quick squeeze, I stepped forward motioning Edward and Seth to follow. I should have brought Jacob with me instead of Seth, but since he was currently in wolf form, and would not be able to communicate other than through Edward, bringing Seth made sense.

A thousand thoughts flew through my mind as we walked across the sparkling meadow, but one thought was heaviest on my conscience. Under no circumstances could Aro touch me or Edward. If he did, he would know all that we knew, and we could not risk the Volturi finding out what Snow, Wanda, Sunny, and the rest of the "gone native" Souls were trying to accomplish right now. The only possible positive outcome for this battle hinged on them completely.

"Remember the plan," I whispered to both of them before we were close enough for the Volturi to overhear. "If they attack you do not fight back except to get away, and you run back to our line. It's the only way we stand a chance." They both nodded their heads in assent and we finished the remainder of the walk in silence.

We stopped in front of Aro, and waited for him to make the first move. He and his brothers, Caius and Marcus, stared at us with cold red glittering eyes, that reflected the sunlight just like a Soul's did. Clearly a side effect of feeding on Souls while they were in their human hosts.

Suddenly smiling, Aro extended a hand for me to shake. "Carlisle, my old friend! Please tell me, how have you been? How is your family, especially your gifted granddaughter? I hear she's all grown up these days."

I just stared at the proffered hand until he reluctantly put it down by his side. There was no friendly smile on any of their faces now, and in Aro's all I could see was barely contained anger.

He began again, spitting his first few words out at me. "Stand down, Carlisle. If you do now, I will promise that none of your family will be harmed. There is room for all of you among us. All we want are the humans… and the wolves," he amended shooting an angry look towards Seth.

I shook my head slowly. "No, old friend. These are all my family. If you harm any of them you are harming me."

Aro's expression softened a little and he took a step towards me and in words so quiet I could hardly hear them, hissed at me. "Why are you defending them? Why turn your back on your own kind?" Taking another step towards me, he extended his hand towards me yet again, and his voice became pleading. "Please Carlisle, for old times sake. You are still my friend, are you not?"

Stepping back from him, I refused to shake his hand yet again. "Aro, you are indeed my friend, and always will be on my part. But I don't see myself turning my back on my own kind by defending humanity. They _are_ my kind." And with that I turned on my heel and started to march away.

Before I could even realize what had happened, Edward had shoved me off to the side, and I landed in the snow just in time to see one of the bigger Volturi land right where I had been moments before, my death clear in his expression.

There was a momentary pause that felt like the collective intake of breath of everyone in the meadow and ravine (even those of us who didn't breath), and then it started all at once.

**

* * *

Chapter Six: Battle**

I heard Aro shouting at his brothers to wait and let him try to reason with me a bit more. Aro's previous success was due in part to talk. The way he spoke, the eloquent way he twisted words. Today, in the middle of this bleak, yet beautiful field, it was his downfall.

Marcus and Caius exchanged a look, and then in unison fell upon Aro, tearing him to pieces and lighting him on fire before I could even blink. Like Aro had said, they were inordinately strong, just like newborns. And just like any newborn, talk was not what they wanted to hear. They believed and wanted only action today and were willing to kill anyone that stood in their way, even if it meant taking down the vampire that had placed them into power.

I didn't have time to think more about it, because my attacker was moving towards me again, determined to finish what he started. Seth leapt towards him, phasing into his wolf form mid leap. He landed on my attacker's back, and ripped chunk out of his neck in the process. The sound of metal being torn in two shrieked in the air as Seth continued to rip pieces off the Vampire he was attacking. Meanwhile Edward was dragging me to my feet and pulling me back towards the safety of the ravine.

"Come on, Seth!" Edward called over his shoulder. "No time to be a hero! Stick to the plan!"

Seth disentangled himself from the now decapitated Vampire and gave Edward what I perceived as a sloppy grin in his wolf form. Edward froze in his steps and I bumped into him, so sudden was his stop.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled and lurched towards Seth, but it was already too late. Time slowed around us as I watched in horror as another Vampire landed astride Seth and ripped his head off in one smooth motion, a fountain of blood spewing from the now headless wolf body as it tumbled to the ground.

I stared disbelieving as the pure white snow around Seth's body was dyed crimson. Beside me, Edward lurched forward, as if his presence might be able to erase what had just happened. It took every ounce of strength I had to restrain him as I pulled him back towards the relative safety of our line. One among was lost, and I had the sickening knowledge that Seth would not be the only one. If we wanted to succeed though, if we wanted to get through this, I could not think of it now.

A bone chilling howl rose up from the Pack as they witnessed what happened, and I could tell it was only by Jacob forcing his will on them as the Alpha that kept them from launching themselves across the field at the enemy prematurely.

As soon as we were far enough away I shouted towards the treetops. "Fire at will, Jeb!" I heard more than saw over two dozen triggers being pulled, and turned to watch as WP grenades arced towards the Volturi line.

Arrogantly, they made no attempt to move out of the way from the flying projectiles and we were rewarded with the sight of most of the grenades hitting a vampire or two and igniting on impact. Initially the Volturi seemed to think nothing of the fires, but panic rapidly mounted once they realized they could not extinguish the flames, and the burning vampires fled the field, taking many of the Volturi not willing to die for this cause with them.

"Looks like Jeb's idea worked brilliantly," Jasper said from behind me. "Unfortunately, now we've lost the element of surprise, and once they get closer, they know those weapons will be ineffective since we won't risk hitting ourselves with them. And of course the odds are still about three to one."

"Dude, sweet! Three to one! I was afraid I was going to get bored," Emmett said raising his hand for a high five that never came. Rosalie scowled at him, and Emmett shrugged in confusion. "What?! What'd I say babe?" Obviously Emmett forgot that of all the Werewolves, Seth was the only one that Rosalie had actually liked. Or perhaps he hadn't, but this was his way of coping with the loss. As for myself, I was trying not to think about it and to focus on the ensuing battle instead. If I thought about Seth I wouldn't be able to think about anything else, which would leave me distracted and unfocused and unable to fight. I couldn't afford to be like that; I didn't want to lose anyone else.

The rest of what Emmett was saying was drowned out by a roar coming from the Volturi line as they raced towards us, faster than it was possible for Jeb's team to shoot at them, though they still tried valiantly until the Volturi got too close for them to aim at based on the parabolic trajectory of their weapons.

This was where the genius of the rest of Jeb's plan took place. We stood a few feet back from the mouth of the ravine, which was just wide enough for a half a dozen bodies to fight. We would make our stand here, because their superior numbers would not make a difference in such close quarters. The only thing we had to contend with was their superior strength.

Once they were too close for Jeb's team to shoot at, Alice danced in front of us, and with the skill born of countless hours of pitching practice for our Vampire baseball games proceeded to systematically throw WP grenades at the Volturi. First Marcus, then Alec, then a few others I did not recognize. On fire, they turned and ran as far away as they could into the forest. I didn't know if it would kill them, but it had certainly removed them from the fight. Demetri somehow managed to avoid Alice's throw at him, and before she could attempt to throw again, Jasper jerked her back into the line, and not a moment to soon.

Like the crash of a tidal wave our two lines met and suddenly vampires and wolves were flying everywhere.

The battle was intense and I could barely keep myself alive, much less anyone else, but still I fought for all I was worth. I would save my family or I would go down fighting for their lives.

Alice and Jasper made a lethal team with Leah. They would leap onto a vampire simultaneously, and rip them to shreds before the vampire had time to react. Even at newborn strength, three against one was insurmountable odds. Leah was fighting with a ferocity I'd never seen in her before, pouring the grief and anger she felt over her brother's death into every move she made.

Esme and I were fighting with Sam, and similar teams were taking out other Volturi successfully around the ravine's mouth. But still there were too many of them, and a team of a nearly a dozen vampires led by the tracker Demetri made their way straight for where Bella had been hidden. None of us could break off from our own fights to help. Bella was being protected by Emmett, Rosalie, Edward, and Jacob, plus she was not a bad fighter herself. It would have to be enough.

The battle raged around me and I saw with grief that next to many burning and dismembered Volturi bodies there were several wolf and human bodies as well. Apparently some of the humans had foolishly climbed down out of their trees to join the fray.

Suddenly there was a hole in the fighting around me, so I turned and ran towards Bella's hiding spot, determined to help defend her. I rounded a boulder in time to see Edward fighting Demetri, while Bella, Jake and Rosalie each fought a separate Volturi. Emmett was personally taking on two of them and seemed to be giving as well as he got, but I knew he wouldn't last long with odds like that.

I managed to take one step towards him when abruptly I crumpled and my body convulsed in pain.

_Jane_, I thought fleetingly through the pain. And sure enough, there she was, smiling beautifully at me as she stepped out from an outcropping. She stared at me, evil and malice pouring from her glittering red eyes, and I jerked on the ground spasmodically unable to stop her. Clearly Bella's shield around us had fallen during her fight with the Volturi.

It was the most excruciating physical pain I'd ever felt, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

I watched in horror as three more Volturi leapt onto Emmett, who had one dismembered body at his feet, and was working on dismembering his second. It seemed for a moment that he would be able to fight them off. It seemed as if my son would continue to be the strongest Vampire known to our kind.

It seemed like it.

And yet, three newborn strength Vampires against one proved to be too much even for Emmett, and he went down beneath the three of them. Rosalie shrieked inhumanly and launched herself at them, forgetting about the vampire she was fighting.

All this I watched, unable to move, unable to fight, unable to stop as my children were pulled to pieces by the monsters that were our kind.

My body convulsed and I stared back at Jane, truly feeling hate for the first time in my life. Jane smiled at me more fully and made as if to say something to me, when suddenly Esme landed behind Jane, shoved a WP grenade in Jane's mouth, and slammed it closed with enough force to ignite the grenade.

Esme leapt away and flattened herself on the ground next to me just in time for a fire ball to fly from Jane's now open mouth as she shrieked in pain and fear while she burned from the inside out.

The convulsions ceased immediately and Esme and I raced towards Emmett and Rosalie, joined by Bella, Edward, and Jacob who had each incapacitated their foes in one way or another. Judging by the purple smoke billowing from where Edward had been, it was safe to say that Demetri was a pile of ash now. We quickly decimated the remaining Volturi attackers, but not before the damage had been done. Emmett and Rosalie's few remaining pieces were burning in a combined bonfire. I followed the trail of purple smoke up into the heavens with my eyes, and felt Esme grip my hand as hard as she could.

My world seemed to tilt on its axis as I stared numbly at the purple fire that raged. I couldn't even cry.

The sound of Soul shuttles came from overhead as three of them slowly descended into the meadow, and all fighting ceased as we all stood staring at the slowly opening ramps of the shuttles.

Numbly I made my way towards them and watched as Seekers poured out from them, guns up and aimed at all of us. At that moment I truly wished I could die from something as simple as a gunshot wound.

Then a group of Souls that I recognized as several of the world leaders who'd been present at the Global Environmental Conference in Seattle walked out, lead by none other than Wanderer and Snow.

They surveyed the scene with mouths open, unable to hide their emotions. Shock, fear, sadness, and above all horror when they saw my kind glittering in the sunlight and watched as a few of the werewolves phased back into human form.

Caius, realizing that he no longer had a reason to fight, for the Souls clearly knew about werewolves and vampires now, and not wanting to risk any more loss then he'd already incurred, ran off into the forest at inhuman speeds followed by what remained of the Volturi.

If the Souls didn't believe Snow and Wanda before, they certainly did now.

We let them run. We were in no shape emotionally or physically to pursue them.

We'd won this battle, and hopefully the war. But at what cost?

**

* * *

Chapter Seven: Aftermath**

It turned out that we had won the war, but that the cost had been great to both the Pack and my family.

In addition to Seth, Quill and a few of the other younger wolves that I didn't know very well had died in the battle, and many wolves were wounded, though none of them were permanently maimed.

Among my family, we suffered many losses. Aside from losing two of my own children, Emmett and Rosalie, my cousins, Tanya, Carmen and her mate Eleazer made the ultimate sacrifice for human freedom. The Denali clan had been decimated, leaving only Garrett and Kate as survivors.

Even so, we tried to remain positive, to count our blessings. Most of us had survived. Initially we had thought we would all die. And those who did die, did not die in vain.

The Souls, after meeting with the LaPush Souls at the Global Environmental Conference in Seattle, had, as we all assumed, become properly horrified once they realized the mass genocide they committed. The added revelation of the existence of supernatural creatures that could not be used as hosts like vampires and werewolves only deepened their shock and horror. Ultimately, they had no desire to continue the colonization of Earth any longer, especially since it seemed that the overwhelming mindset of the Souls on Earth was that none of them were willing to allow their human children to be used as Hosts.

So it was as Wanderer had once said. The key to humanity's survival was in their children.

In addition to all this, my family had two new members.

Ian O'Shea had been gravely wounded during the battle, leaving the safety of his tree when he saw his brother Kyle engaging one of the Volturi in battle. Knowing that Kyle would die on his own, he'd joined him, and between the two of them, they managed to take out the Vampire with their WP grenades, but both had been hurt so badly in the fight that Kyle had died before anyone could help him.

Wanda had found Ian propped up against a tree with Kyle cradled in his lap, barely clinging to life. Hysterical, she'd called for Doc, not knowing he too had died in the battle, and eventually called for anyone who could help.

Esme and I both ran to her side, and kneeling beside the nearly unconscious Ian, I knew we were too late. His blood pressure was too low, and he had lost so much blood that no amount of Heal could save him now.

I turned to Wanderer and tried to explain this, but before the words were fully out of my mouth, her fragile little hand was clenched around my bicep in a death grip. Eyes never leaving Ian's face, she bit out the words harshly.

"No Carlisle, _Heal_ can't save him, but _you_ can." Then she looked away from Ian for only a moment, just long enough to stare into my eyes with more determination then I'd ever seen in a living being. "Do it. Please. Now. Before it's too late." Then, turning back to Ian, she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips before I heard her whisper quietly, yet resolutely, "You. Are. Not. Leaving. Me." Each word a distinct sentence. Those words seemed to mean something to Ian, and I saw his eyes gain clarity for a moment and a smile touch his lips as he whispered back "Never," before slipping into unconsciousness.

And so I did it. I made Ian into one of my kind, and in doing so gained another son and daughter.

After beginning Ian's change, Esme and I moved as quickly through the werewolf and human wounded as we could, doing our best to help them, and save lives where we could. Unfortunately, several humans also gave their lives in the battle, Doc and Kyle being the two I knew the best among them. Thankfully Jeb did not die, and only lost a leg. He was saved from bleeding to death by a Healer, and, as was his way immediately formed a friendship with him - Fords - as Wanda called him. He was apparently an old friend of hers, and was quickly in support of the human cause, having had a difficult time supporting the colonization of Earth to begin with.

And so, this is how I came to find myself, after centuries of existence, finally feeling like, maybe, just maybe, I wasn't the monster I'd always believed I was.

Esme wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned her head against my shoulder as we surveyed what remained of the battle site from our tree top vantage point.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I asked her and she smiled lightly.

"I was just thinking about Caius, and all the Volturi that got away."

"Oh is that all?" I teased. "Not pondering the fate of humanity?"

"No, nothing so serious dearest," she teased back, and then quietly sobered. "I can't believe they're gone."

I didn't need to ask who. Our children, Emmett and Rosalie. Seth even, who was almost an adopted son. All of them had risked their lives so that humanity might survive and continue. All heroes. And all gone forever.

We had won and we had lost, but ultimately, Humanity would live on, and no one had died in vain.

I could think of no appropriate response, so I pulled Esme tight to me, and kissing the top of her head, said nothing at all.


	6. Epilogue

**_150 years later_**

**Epilogue: **_**Snow**_

The end of the invasion was both sudden and gradual. Most Souls, though horrified by what we had done, did not want to completely waste the lives of their Hosts, and most remained if the human never came back to "claim the body." No human's were used as Hosts again, except on the rare case where a body was "donated" for a Soul who remained on Earth when they needed it, much like how human's used to donate their organs for others to use when they died.

At this point, there are only a few Souls left on Earth. Those of us who have been asked to remain behind as counselors and ambassadors for our kind; myself, Wanderer, Burns, and a handful of others who are remaining on as instructors at Universities to help impart our knowledge in the areas of Healing and Engineering.

I had originally thought the Seekers, who were the most human-like in their personalities and attitudes would balk at leaving Earth. But it turned out that the existence of beings that couldn't be used as Hosts (the vampires and werewolves), scared them to death, and none had any desire to remain on Earth after their Host died.

Regarding my supernatural friends, they did not reveal their existence to the Souls cavalierly, and it was their wish to return to their quiet, secretive lives. It was agreed that nothing would be recorded about their existence, and that rumors and stories about them would remain just that, eventually returning them to the realm of Mythology.

Speaking of the Cullens themselves, they are coming back to Forks to "start over" once again. Of all the places they call home, this is their favorite, and we are all happy to see them come back, because there are many reasons on both sides to celebrate their return.

Bella and Edward are overjoyed that they would be close to their daughter again, since other than visits back and forth, they hadn't been able to see much of her over the last few decades. With Jacob being the Pack's Alpha, it is difficult for him to leave for long periods of time, and of course, Jacob and Nessie are inseparable. As for me, I'm very glad to have my dear friends Carlisle, Esme, Wanderer and Ian in such close proximity.

Ian and Wanda fit in well with the Cullens. While no one could ever replace Emmett and Rosalie, those two did help fill the void. It has been difficult at times for Ian to maintain a relationship with Wanderer since she's in a human Host, but he's never faltered, and they have a wonderful relationship. It does help knowing that even if Ian did slip, Wanderer could be placed in a new Host, though thankfully it's never come to that. Bella and Edward, having a unique understanding of their situation, have also been very supportive to the two of them over the years, and it's helped immensely. Though there have been no more vampire/human hybrid babies – Renesme is unique in the Cullen family, and from what I can tell, Wanda and Ian wish to keep it that way.

Another area of celebration is the return of Alice and Jasper. Jeb, being the curious man that he was, and having struck up such a great friendship with Fords was invited to be the human ambassador to the Souls and tour the galaxy with Fords and Sunny for a time. He in turn invited Alice and Jasper to accompany him, and they readily agreed to go for a while. With the cryogenic stasis he was placed in for every travel, he has aged perhaps only five years since he left Earth 150 years ago. Based on the reports he has sent back he is having the time of his life, and won't be returning any time soon.

Sunny chose to accompany Jeb for a time, and then to go back to the Bears after Kyle died. She simply couldn't handle being human without him.

Melanie and Jared intended to live normal human lives out at their "old cabin" with a few of the other cave dwellers in a clan of sorts, and have a half a dozen children. Even though Melanie claimed she just wanted a quiet life with Jared, she was meant to lead, and eventually ended up being one of the prominent human world leaders, while Jared and the rest of her clan provided her with all the support she needed. And yes, they did still have the half dozen children.

As for Jamie, he grew up, went to college, fell in love and got married… to a Soul. They lived very full lives, and he eventually ended up following in Jeb's footsteps after his children had grown, and is currently still an acting ambassador to the Souls with his wife, Sings in the Night.

Leah had a hard time getting over the death of her brother, but with Burns' love and support she was able to carry on. The two of them are very much in love and well suited to each other, so of course, eventually got married. Leah got her wish for children, since, like so many human couples have had to do over time, they adopted. They are still together to this day, and as a matter of fact Burns was just placed in his third Human host (donated of course), and I foresee centuries of love and happiness, and children, between the two of them yet to come.

As was his right, Sam chose not to be immortal since his beloved Emily was gone, and so lived out a natural life, and eventually died over ninety years ago. We lived a long full life together, both of us making it to our late nineties before dying of natural causes. We had our two children, many grandchildren, and countless great-grandchildren, and they are all beautiful.

I cannot blame my husband for not desiring to stay in this mortal world any longer. No one should have to be immortal against their wishes, and while I know to his dying day he pined for Emily, I also know that he truly and completely loved me as well. So I am content and I am happy.

I write this knowing that this, my second life as a human, will be coming to an end soon. Once again I find myself old and bent, and weary with age, but more than that, weary with life. I'd never intended on taking a second host, wanting only to follow my husband even in death, and it was only at my old friend and colleague Carlisle's insistence that I was still needed that I agreed to be inserted in one last Host. But the truth was, without my dearest Sam and precious Little Em and Little Sam, life no longer holds the color and joy it once had. I find that I am ready to join them in whatever comes after this mortal existence. And I think I'm ready to finally meet Emily.

Earth is still a paradise. There has been no global war so far, but eventually things will go back to how they were, despite our guidance and presence here. Rich, poor, love, war – it is what makes them Human.

It is what makes them beautiful.

The End

* * *

**A/N: Well, that's it. That's the end.**

**Thank you all so much for sticking with the story (even years later it's still getting hits!) & reading it to the end. Also, your wonderful comments & PMs were always welcomed & enjoyed. I really appreciate it. :)**

***EDIT* 30 Nov 2012**

**In my old A/N I mentioned going on and writing my own original fiction & hopefully getting it published. Well, crazy enough it happened! for those of you interested you can find my original fiction, the War of the Seasons series (the first two books are out - published by Silence in the Library).**

**You can find my books in any store, and of course on Amazon. In addition to print copies you can get it for your kindle, nook, pretty much any eReader for only five bucks.**

**The first couple chapters are up for free to read on my website (I'm a big fan of test driving before you buy) WarOfTheSeasons dot com. **

**Also, if you want more fanfic, I did just finish writing an Avengers story - the link is on my author profile here.**

**As for the rest of you, I'm curious to know what you think of the story; feel free to comment or to PM me whenever.**

**Thanks again - I've truly enjoyed this ride.**

**-Janine**


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